Forex Roundup - U.S. News: UMichigan Confidence survey falls, NY State Manufacturing Survey drops.

February 15, 2008 - Forex Economic News

New York State manufacturing activity declined in February in data released today by the New York Fed. The Empire State Manufacturing Survey showed that the general business index in New York dropped by about 21 points to -11.7 from January to February. The -11.7 index score is the first time the general business index has recorded a negative level since May of 2005. The new orders index also registered a negative score falling over 11 points to -11.88, the shipments index declined almost 11 points to -4.86 and the unfilled orders index fell almost 2 points to -1.05. Future outlook index levels showed that there is some positivity in going forward as the future general business index, future new orders, shipments indexes and the future inventories index all showed increased levels compared to last month.

The University of Michigan/Reuters consumer confidence survey dropped today to the lowest level since 1992. The consumer sentiment survey report released by UMichigan/Reuters fell to a 69.6 score in February, down from 78.4 in January. The expectations index, which measures future economic sentiment, declined from 68.1 in January to 59.4 in February, the lowest point in 16 years. The current conditions index dropped from 94.4 in January to 85.4 in February, also the lowest since 1992. Consumer expectations on inflation remained unchanged since January at 3.0 percent.

These two news releases weighed on the U.S. dollar which declined against most major currencies today. The EUR/USD pair broke above the 1.4700 level for the first time in 10 days before returning to a steady range between 1.4665 and 1.4690.

Tags: Empire State Manufacturing Survey, NY State, Consumer Confidence, UMichigan, Reuters, consumer sentiment

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