By Ed Frankl
Texas’s factory sector recorded weaker business conditions this month, as production continued to be subdued and optimism about the outlook retreated.
The Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey’s index for general business activity, released Monday by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, rose to minus 5.0 in October from minus 8.7 in September. The reading below zero suggests activity slowed again, albeit at a weaker pace than September.
The index, calculated by subtracting the percentage of this month’s 73 manufacturers reporting a decrease from the percentage reporting an increase, has been in negative territory since February, save for one month of expansion in July.
Production was unchanged in October at below-average output growth for the second consecutive month. The new orders index was little changed, indicating a slight decline in demand in October, the Dallas Fed said.
Elsewhere, employment slightly increased, though there was a contraction in work hours, it said. Price and wage pressures eased this month, the Dallas Fed said.
Meanwhile, the outlook-uncertainty index increased, while optimism about the next six month waned, the survey said. Responses were collected between Oct. 14 and Oct. 22, well after the start of the federal government shutdown.
Write to Ed Frankl at edward.frankl@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
10-27-25 1110ET