Dallas Fed Factory Gauge Gains, Adding to Signs of Stabilization

A third regional Federal Reserve factory gauge picked up in February, adding to signs that manufacturing had been stabilizing before the coronavirus outbreak intensified beyond China.

The Dallas Fed’s gauge of manufacturing in Texas signaled expansion for the fist time in five months, rising to 1.2 from a reading of minus 0.2 in January, according to a report Monday. That exceeded estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists that had called for a reading of zero, the dividing line between expansion and contraction.