“Business Climate Remains Much Worse Than Normal”, Tri-State Leaders Warn

Activity continued to decline in the Tri-State region’s service sector, as executives from New York, northern New Jersey, and southwestern Connecticut warn the “business climate remains much worse than normal” in the latest NYFRB Services survey.

The headline business activity index fell three points to -14.6. 22% of respondents reported that conditions improved over the month and 37% said that conditions worsened.

Source: Bloomberg

This is the 15th month of the last 18 that has signaled an economically troubling business climate.

The index for future business activity climbed to 12.2, indicating that firms do not expect activity to increase much over the next six months. The index for the future business climate came in at -7.4, suggesting the business climate is expected to remain worse than normal.

Employment growth stalled, and wage increases slowed for a third consecutive month. Input price increases moderated, while the pace of selling price increases was slightly higher. Looking ahead, optimism about the six-month outlook remained subdued.

It appears the resurgence of ‘soft’ data is over and may have begun to revert back to ‘hard’ data’s reality…

Just don’t tell The Fed.