US: NY Empire State Manufacturing Index improves to 4.8 in January from 3.3 in December

• Manufacturing activity in NY area continues to expand in January.
• US Dollar Index struggles to shake off the bearish pressure.

The business activity in New York State's manufacturing firms expanded at a slightly better pace in January than they did in December with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Empire State Manufacturing Survey's headline General Business Conditions Index rising to 4.8 from 3.3 in December. This reading came in better than the market expectation of 3.55 as well.

"Indexes assessing the six-month outlook suggested that optimism about future conditions remained restrained," NY Fed noted in its publication. "The index for future business conditions edged down three points to 23.6."

The US Dollar Index ignored this data and was last down 0.11% on a daily basis at 97.28.