Mubasher: US manufacturing business activity extended a growth slowdown in November for the sixth month running, according to New York Federal Reserve Bank’s Empire State Manufacturing Survey.

The Empire State manufacturing index, gauging overall general business conditions, came in at 2.9 points in November, compared with 4.4 points last October.

The new order metric went up by 2 points to 5.5 in November, whereas the shipments gauge dropped by 4 points to 8.8 points.

The index for unfilled orders rose to -8.2 points, compared with -12.5 points, but it was still in a negative territory for the sixth month in a row.

Nevertheless, the employment continued to grow, with the respective gauge climbing to 10.4 points.

Optimism about future business conditions remained subdued, even with the six-month outlook index rising to 19.4 points during the month.

By 1:50 pm GMT, the US dollar index inched down by 0.07% to 98.0990.