The Empire State Manufacturing Survey for March indicates that business conditions for manufacturers were largely stagnant from February to March. The general business conditions index is still positive at 5.6, up from 4.5, indicating that manufacturing was expanding, albeit very slowly. New orders improved to 3.1 from -0.2 last month while Shipments grew to 4.0 from 2.1. The six-month outlook remained positive but softened, falling almost six points to 33.2 from 39.0. See the full report here.
