Empire manufacturing unexpectedly rose.
The latest Empire manufacturing index came in at 1.50 for November, above economists’ expectations of -2.50.
This was the first time the headline number pulled out of negative territory in four months.
Last month, the index unexpectedly collapsed to -6.80.
New orders and shipments turned positive, but labor market conditions remained “weak.” The number of employees and average workweek indexes came in at -10.9, according to the report. Additionally, the inventories index fell 11 points to -23.6.
And finally, the index for future business conditions fell by 6 points to 29.9, suggesting that "respondents were somewhat less optimistic about future conditions than they were last month."