The Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index fell back to -4 in March after increasing to 6 in February, below expectations of an increase to 8.

• The Shipments index dropped -19 pts to -7, and the New Orders index returned back to a decline at -4.
• The decline in capacity utilization intensified with that index down -5 pts to -11.
• The Employment index dropped -10 pts to -1, and the Capital Expenditures index fell -6 pts to -7.
• Both current and future Prices Paid jumped up to 3.75% (prev 2.23%) and 7.16% (prev 4.64%) respectively.
• As costs increased, the current and future Prices Received measures also increased to 2.34% (prev 1.62%) and 4.00% (prev 3.19%).