Manufacturing activity in the New York region continued to contract sharply in January, according to the monthly survey published on Tuesday by the Federal Reserve's regional office.

Having already fallen heavily in December, the 'Empire State' index sank further into the red zone this month, to -43.7, the lowest since May 2020, compared with -14.5 the previous month.

On the contrary, economists were forecasting a rise in this indicator to around -5.

The new orders sub-index deteriorated to -49.4, from -11.3 in December, while the component measuring the number of hours worked deteriorated to -6.1, from -2.4 in December, highlighting a weakening in the labor market.

Copyright (c) 2024 CercleFinance.com. All rights reserved.