Dallas Fed April service sector outlook index -19.4 vs -11.3 prior | Forexlive

• Prior was -11.3
• Revenue index +3.8 vs +1.3 prior
• Employment -5.1 vs +2.2 prior
• Selling prices +8.4 vs +5.2 prior
• Capex +0.6 vs +7.4 prior
• Future revenue +16.8 vs +30.8 prior

Selected comments:

Electronics and appliance stores

• People are acting almost in a panic about the economy.
• We are beginning to get more price-increase notices from vendors. Product delays are increasing.

Furniture and home furnishings stores

• Tariffs are making it difficult with all the quotes we have
  out to customers. Manufacturers apply them to us, but we are having a
  hard time going back to customers to add the tariffs, so we are eating
  them. Although, I am for [tariffs] for the long term.

Motor vehicle and parts dealers

• Uncertainty is a major concern for us. How can you predict the
  balance of 2025 with the uncertainty that exists? You can’t make
  long-term plans without direction and actions leading to stability in
  the marketplace. The impact of tariffs is unknown!
• Our major concern is the effect of tariffs.
• The retail automobile business is embroiled in uncertainty as we struggle to understand tariffs’ effects on vehicle pricing.
• We are devoting so much time to mitigating the chaos this
  administration is creating that we have little time left to run our
  business.

Food services and drinking places

• Our supply-chain decisions are in wait-and-see mode while we
  await tariff certainty. Green coffee, bags, cups and other consumables
  make up most of our material costs, and all are sourced
  internationally. Anticipating the tariffs, we were able to forward-lock
  green coffee for several months, so we have not been impacted. We are
  hoping that the issue is resolved before supply chain lead times begin
  to threaten availability. We have been forced to research domestic
  suppliers for bags and cups. Most suppliers are Chinese, and tariffs
  will directly impact those costs. However, of note, the 145 percent
  Chinese tariffs are tolled on their cost, not on sale price. Most, if
  not all, foil and plastic materials necessary for domestic production
  are also supplied by China, so there is no truly realistic tariff
  avoidance available. This is a complicated matter, and absent
  resolutions to the tariff agreements within the next 45 to 60 days, our
  input and sales prices will rise on the order of 10 percent or more,
  which is material.

Support activities for transportation

• The drought in South Texas is still our major concern. The second concern is the uncertainty of tariffs.
• [We are] devastated. We are a trucking company specializing in
  transporting international shipping containers, and there is no other
  word that captures what we are facing. The fragile balance that
  underpins the global equipment supply chain has collapsed. Ocean
  container bookings have plummeted by 64 percent, which means 64 percent
  of our business has vanished overnight. Without incoming containers,
  there is nothing to reload, nothing to export and no way to keep our
  trucks moving. This loss of freight in the market will bleed into every
  area of transportation. I have already had to make the heartbreaking
  decision to lay off one third of my staff. Any further cuts would
  cripple our ability to operate at even the most basic level. At this
  point, we are staring down the very real possibility of shutting down
  entirely. Ten years of fighting to keep a company alive and people
  employed through a global pandemic, the freight recession of 2023–24,
  and now this.

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