After a big jump post-election, the Empire Manufacturing report for January backed off of its recent highs, missing consensus forecasts in the process. While economists were forecasting the headline reading to come in at a level of 8.5, the actual reading came in at 6.5. While the current conditions index backed off slightly, expectations for the future remained right at their multi-year high from last month.
Plans for capital expenditures and tech spending continued to rise this month, though. Plans for capex spending rose to the highest level since February 2015, while plans for technology spending also increased.
Finally, the table below breaks down this month's report by each of the report's sub-indices. As far as current conditions are concerned, New Orders and Shipments both declined, while every other category increased. One notable increase was Prices Paid, which is now at its highest level in three years, while Prices Received is at its highest level in nearly five years.
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