The Empire Strikes Out! Business Conditions Expectations Plunged To Lowest Since 9/11

The Emperor is actually China’s Xi Jinping! Causing the Empire Fed Manufacturing index to decline.

Despite the slump in ‘soft’ survey data, analysts expected Empire Fed Manufacturing to bounce back from March’s tumble to one year lows and they were right with the headline index rising from -20.0 to -8.1 (considerably better than the -13.5), but still negative. However, while current conditions jumped, expectations plunged to the lowest since 9/11/.