April 15, 2009 Federal Reserve Districts Eleventh District--Dallas

Skip to content Summary Districts Boston New York Philadelphia Cleveland Richmond Atlanta Chicago St. Louis Minneapolis Kansas City Dallas San Francisco Full report

Economic conditions in the Eleventh District remained weak from mid-February to the end of March. Contacts across a broad range of industries including manufacturing, retail, residential construction and financial activities reported that they were seeing signs of stabilizing at low levels. Other industries, such as oil and gas extraction, employment services and intermodal transportation noted sharp declines. Financial services continued to report low lending activity due to weak demand and tight credit standards. Drought conditions and low margins continue to put a financial strain on District farmers and ranchers. Prices Most contacts reported continued downward price pressures. Retail contacts said that prices of some items like apparel were flat but many food and some plastic items were declining in price. Service industries such as accounting and legal services said they were having difficulty resisting customer demands for lower prices and several noted some recent discounting. Transportation service contacts noted falling prices, particularly airlines. Many manufacturing contacts reported price declines, with some sharp declines in industries tied to construction. Prices for light sweet crude were near $40 per barrel in late February, but rose to over $50 per barrel in late March. Contacts said that much of the increase seemed to be driven by news of additional fiscal and monetary stimulus and data indicating greater stability in the economy. Natural gas prices fell under $4 per thousand cubic feet for the first time since 2002, but moved back over $4 as crude prices rose and economic news improved. Respondents felt that fundamentals remained negative, however, with winter ending and weak industrial demand, steady production, ample inventories and a forecast of cool summer weather. Labor Market Labor markets remained weak, although a growing number of respondents are holding employment levels flat rather than cutting further. Many respondents noted that they had already cut and that they were trying to hold on to key personnel. The main exceptions were energy extraction, real estate, construction and manufacturing which have all experienced further layoffs. Many companies reported hiring freezes and very little, if any, wage increases. Manufacturing Most manufacturing contacts reported that after several months of sharp declines, demand is starting to flatten at low levels. Most reported that they have kept inventories tight. Most construction-related manufacturers reported that after another sharp decline in February, orders flattened out in March. An exception was the fabricated metals industry which reported a sharp decline in orders over the past 30 days. Many construction-related contacts reported very low levels of capacity utilization with some firms reporting levels below 50 percent. Several reported temporary plant shutdowns and continued layoffs. Most contacts expected the current weakness to persist throughout 2009 with residential starts showing no improvement and non-residential construction continuing to weaken. High-tech manufacturers reported that after steep declines in February, demand has started to "bounce across the bottom." Semiconductor contacts reported that conditions are particularly weak in memory chips which will likely experience an L-shaped recovery with an extended bottom while logic chips should see a U-shaped recovery. Demand has been particularly weak for producers of equipment used in chip production with sales down by two-thirds to three-fourths from two years ago. High-tech manufacturers report that they have been able to keep inventories low so that when demand begins to increase it will translate quickly into increased production. One respondent noted that the current downturn in high-tech is much worse than the high-tech recession in 2001. Paper producers reported that demand has flattened since the last survey. Some contacts reported that employment has stabilized after significant cutbacks last year. Inventories were mixed with some contacts reporting desired lean levels and some reporting excess inventories. Most contacts expect demand to improve near year-end. Petrochemical producers generally indicated that the free fall of late last year is over and there was growing stability and even a small turnaround in operating rates. Contacts reported that ethylene and a number of other chemical and plastic products have clearly bottomed out after massive industry destocking last fall. Contacts said that no one is buying inputs without an order in hand, leaving demand still erratic and unpredictable. Operating rates are slowly moving up however, from 70 to 75 percent. Refinery capacity utilization remained weak and near 82 percent, but part of the weakness was due to normal spring turnaround and maintenance, and the switch from heating oil to gasoline production. The demand for distillates (diesel and heating oil) fell seasonally, and prices along with it. Refinery margins improved from the very low levels early in the year, but are still depressed. Retail Sales Retail contacts reported that sales have flattened out since the last survey. Most retailers that focus on discretionary items report that year-over-year sales are down from about five to twelve percent. Luxury items continue to suffer the most while food and necessities are doing better. Contacts also note a continued switch to lower-priced private label brands. Most retail store contacts expect demand to remain near current levels through much of this year. Auto dealers reported generally flat sales over the past six weeks, with year-over-year demand down about 40 percent. Sales continued to be weak for both domestic and imported brands. Respondents reported that while credit remains tight, the major factor suppressing demand was low consumer confidence due to job losses, loss of household wealth, and uncertainty about the economic outlook. Most expect continued weakness through the end of the year. Services Staffing firms reported continued weak demand. Many of their clients are laying off workers and are thus not renewing contracts on current personnel. New orders are down sharply for both direct placements and contract work. Demand is reported to be very weak across industries with the exception of a slight uptick in orders for sales professionals and some increase in finance personnel due to the recent rise in refinance activity, loss mitigation and collections work. The outlook remains weak and uncertain. Demand for legal services continued to soften. Contacts reported that demand continued to be concentrated in litigation and bankruptcy, while there is little corporate, real estate, or transactional demand. While demand for bankruptcy-related services has increased slightly since last Beige Book, it has not yet increased as much as contacts expected at this point in the recession. According to contacts, if litigation and bankruptcy don't pick up as they normally do, "it's going to be ugly." Legal demand that had been coming from abroad is still very tight or basically cut off. Demand for accounting services is steady and continues to be concentrated in tax and audit. Both legal and accounting firms expect growth to be essentially flat this year and noted that receivables are harder to collect. Airline demand has weakened slightly over the past six weeks with demand weakening the most for business travelers and international flights. Contacts said that they are dropping fares in response to lower demand and lower fuel prices. Contacts in container trade and intermodal transportation report that cargo volumes have been down over the last 30 days. Declines in both domestic and international activity have contributed to the fall off. One exception is small parcels. On a seasonally adjusted basis, small parcel growth has been improving since last October. The pick-up has been led by express air volumes, although ground volumes have also improved somewhat since January. Contacts in rail transportation said that there has been some pickup in demand in the past six weeks. Significant volume increases were observed in motor vehicle shipments, although the pickup followed a sharp decrease in the beginning of the year when many auto plants were temporarily shut down. Pronounced declines were seen in shipments of lumber and wood and in non-metallic minerals. Construction and Real Estate Eleventh District housing conditions remain weak, but contacts are more optimistic about the spring selling season than they were at the end of 2008. Home sales remain well below year-ago levels, but respondents noted that homebuyer traffic was better than expected. There were scattered reports of downward price pressures in some areas with rising foreclosures but overall, contacts said home prices in most Texas metros are holding up much better than in other areas of the country. Single-family housing starts continued to decline as builders endure a "painful decrease in home production." Several contacts noted that smaller builders continue to shut their doors as financing becomes more of a problem in the face of slow sales and little cash flow. A very high inventory of developed lots is causing financial problems for lot developers and banks as lots are re-priced, according to respondents. Outlooks remain grim for 2009, but most contacts expect conditions to begin to improve in 2010. Apartment leasing activity steadied in the first quarter after a dismal fourth quarter. Despite the better than expected demand, contacts say occupancy rates and rents will soften in coming months due to the high volume of construction activity in the pipeline. Rent cuts are already prevalent in the Austin area where demand is weak and new projects continue to be completed. Office and industrial leasing activity continues to decline, and rental concessions are rising. Contacts say office sublease space is growing modestly as companies downsize. Commercial real estate investment activity is being hampered by worsening credit availability "that is very close to a complete absence of lenders." Contacts remain very uncertain in their outlooks, but are hopeful recent government initiatives will lead to some improvement in coming months. Financial Services A broad range of financial services contacts in the District continue to report slower demand. Real estate deals continue to be scarce with only the very highest quality deals getting done at lower leverage and a smaller size. Respondents report that over ninety percent of the few deals getting done are multifamily, and these deals are only about 10 percent of the volume of a year ago. Due to new NCUA assessments, credit unions have had to rein in their competitive pricing and feel somewhat more restrained. Contacts reported that commercial real estate loans are basically nonexistent and maturing loans are being renewed at lower leverage/size, while some are not eligible to be renewed. Contacts have seen a continued slowdown in consumer loan demand with credit card purchase volume falling. Contacts have continued to see some deterioration in credit quality and report maintaining tight credit standards. Contacts have also continued to price loans off LIBOR or set floors on the prime rate. Deposits are relatively stable, but difficult to grow due to short-term interest rates essentially at zero. Outlooks remain weak although most contacts were slightly more optimistic compared to the last survey. Energy The demand for oil services and drilling equipment continues to shrink with the rig count. Over the past six weeks the number of U.S. working rigs is down by 300 or 22 percent. Texas, New Mexico and Louisiana all had significant losses, especially Texas which lost 168 rigs - over half the national total. Respondents indicated that a number of natural gas wells drilled in nonconventional shale are cased and will be re-entered when natural gas prices improve, and will give a quick and large boost to supplies. Agriculture Drought conditions persisted across much of the District despite recent rains. The lack of sufficient moisture has been of particular concern to cattle producers, and many ranchers have been forced to cull their herds because of poor pasture conditions, low water supplies and high feed costs. Farmers are holding back on planting crops especially in the dryland areas, and plantings of cotton and sorghum were slightly behind normal. Milk prices have fallen well below production costs leading to financial losses and culling of dairy cow herds. On the beef cattle side, the feedlot industry continues to struggle due to high feed costs and low cattle prices, a result of the ongoing drought and weak demand. Return to top Kansas City San Francisco