The Empire State Strikes Back!
April 15, 2009 by Tisa Silver
Filed under Finance
Sorry, this is nowhere near as exciting as Star Wars Episode V, but the Empire State Index posted a major improvement this month!
Photo by Matti Mattila, courtesy of flickr
The New York Empire State Index is an indicator that tracks the Empire State Manufacturing Survey.
According to Investopedia, the survey is sent to approximately 175 manufacturing executives. The questions are designed to gauge “current sentiment” of the executives and gather their six-month sector outlook.
The indicator is published monthly (mid-month) and generally speaking, positive readings are viewed as good, while negative readings are viewed as bad.
The April reading came in at negative 14.7. On the surface this looks bad, but everything is relative.
Negative 14.7 is much better than March’s reading of negative 38.2.
According to MarketWatch, inventories continued to decline while new orders and production showed substantial improvements.
Stocks in the manufacturing sector rallied earlier today, but have since retreated. For an extensive list of manufacturing stocks, visit Rogue Investor’s site map.
