Dallas Fed June manufacturing index -15.1 vs -19.4 prior | Forexlive

Details:

• General business activity -15.1 vs -19.4 prior
• Company outlook -6.9 vs -13.4 prior
• Prices paid +21.5 vs +20.4 prior
• New orders -1.3 vs -2.2 prior
• Shipments +2.8 vs -3.0 prior
• Employment -2.9 vs -5.3 prior

The pricing numbers all ticked higher.

Comments in the report are much more negative than the report numbers.

Food manufacturing

• We have been fortunate to be on the receiving end of some of our competition’s breakdowns/challenges.
• Markets are stabilizing, raw material costs have stopped increasing (seasonally), and demand for our products feels strong.
• We just added two new retail customers. It is mixed news—it is
  always good to have growth, but we are having trouble maintaining our
  production line. We had 25 percent turnover this year.

Paper manufacturing

• We are really neutral at this time on our outlook.

Printing and related support activities

• We are starting to see things slow down, and while many in our
  industry continue to be slow, we are pretty busy. We had “hooray”
  billing in both April and May, so I’m sure June will be less. It is hard
  to figure out why we have been so busy when many are not. Perhaps it’s
  just luck of the draw with our customers needing us more than their
  customers needed them?

Primary metal manufacturing

• Our overall building and construction sales continue downward for
  the majority of our customers. Decreased housing starts, increased
  mortgage rates and overall housing costs are hampering this market. Our
  transportation market is off as well. Trailer orders are down,
  resulting in fewer being built.
• Legacy work has declined over the past 1.5 years and has not
  changed. Looking forward, we will be adding product offerings not
  previously supplied to bolster business.

Fabricated metal product manufacturing

• We are continuing to align production capacity to the lower order volumes projected for 2024.
• We have a good backlog, but owners have slowed down their
  approvals of projects and start dates for the projects we have purchase
  orders for.

Machinery manufacturing

• The summer doldrums are upon us! Orders are hard to come by,
  layoffs have been made, and the future really doesn’t look that
  encouraging at the present. Our sales team is flipping every rock, our
  “creative” team is looking far and wide for new ideas, and our
  operations team is squeezing out every penny they can.
• We saw a small spurt of incoming work from long-time repeat
  customers, but overall it is still a very volatile work environment. We
  would like to hire but cannot: a) guarantee long-term employment and
  b) find skilled help.
• Business is slowing.
• Business remains sluggish at best. We see no signs of improvement
  and anticipate that there will be no major changes in economic
  activity before the election.

Computer and electronic product manufacturing

• We are seeing the expected cyclical bottom forming. Markets are still asynchronous.
• High interest rates are still playing a major role in the industrial capital equipment industry.

Transportation equipment manufacturing

• While we still have a very large production backlog that is
  allowing us to continue to increase production and capacity
  utilization, our volume of new orders has slowed substantially, causing
  us to reevaluate longer-term plans.

Furniture and related product manufacturing

• [Labor shortages in] skilled trades in millwork manufacturing,
  installation and CNC [computer numerical controlled equipment]
  operators continue to be the largest inhibitor of our growth.

Miscellaneous manufacturing

• I think the election and fear of world conflict is scaring buyers from ordering nonessential material.