The power of CONFIDENCE in Forex Trading

The semiconductor firm reduced hiring during its slowdown last year but is back to normal now. Several firms report that it is hard to find or keep workers; a manufacturer of garden hoses says that finding low skill workers

has become very problematic. A chemical firm is raising wages by 15 percent at a southern U.S. facility to keep trained workers from leaving. Respondents report no news on inventories aside from idiosyncratic factors.

Capital expenditures are up or unchanged for all but one contact. A specialty chemical maker says they exhausted the incremental gains from plant improvement and are considering building a new plant for the first time since well before the 2008 recession.

The outlook is positive for all manufacturing respondents except the furniture manufacturer. A publisher has a positive outlook for the first time in many years.

A healthcare software firm reports mid-single digit revenue growth from a year ago, which represents a full year of normal steady growth after a low point around Q1 2015. This firm's growth tends to be relatively invariant to economic conditions, but had slowed after

ARRA subsidies for hospital automation software phased out. A business and consulting IT firm cites mid-single digit organic growth over last year, as well as revenue-growth contributions from three major acquisitions. Bookings for an IT firm serving manufacturing

customers represent low single-digit decreases year-over-year, which the contact attributes to softening manufacturing demand from emerging markets in particular, and overseas in

general, due to lingering headwinds from a strong dollar. Although it is a small percentage of their business, this firm is seeing strong growth in its "internet of things" projects.

Prices are stable at the healthcare and business IT firms, and up 4 percent from last year at the primarily manufacturing IT firm; the latter also expanded margins by actively cutting expenses. A healthcare IT firm notes that increasing employee healthcare costs was a burden.

Hiring is net positive for all contacts. A healthcare IT firm is hiring across the board, while business and manufacturing IT firms are hiring more selectively in growth areas. They all say wages are increasing in the mid-single digits, though several note particular competition for developers.

A healthcare IT contact is optimistic and expects steady growth for the foreseeable future; most hospitals in the United States already use some sort of automation software, so opportunities for growth are mainly overseas. A manufacturing IT contact is optimistic,

feeling that currency headwinds are dying down and the domestic economy is stabilizing. Their main concern lies with potential weakness in Europe,

as it has been a "bright spot" during an otherwise soft few years. A business and consulting IT contact also expresses optimism but sees some uncertainty in domestic markets--particularly with the election cycle--and identifies overseas factors as the biggest potential destabilizers.

Reports from commercial real estate markets across the First District are mixed. Office leasing activity is increasing in Portland and maintaining a strong pace in Boston, but remains slow in Providence and very slow in Hartford. In greater Boston, the office

vacancy rate edged down further--to as low as 6 percent in the Cambridge area--and rents increased marginally. Elsewhere in the District, leasing fundamentals are roughly flat since the last report. Investment sales volume is down in Boston from one year ago and