Highlights But power demand, prices down on year February storm hit businesses hard New orders, business outlook improving Houston — Texas manufacturing activity in March reached the highest level in the 17-year history of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas’ monthly survey, results released March 29 show, but wholesale power prices so far have been weaker than in March 2020, when pandemic-induced lockdowns began. Receive daily email alerts, subscriber notes & personalize your experience. Register Now The Dallas Fed’s Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey shows a seasonally adjusted production index of 48%, an increase of 28.1 percentage points from this February’s 19.9% and a stark contrast with March 2020’s negative 35.2%. The survey’s various indexes reflect the result when subtracting the percentage of respondents reporting a decrease from the percentage reporting an increase. For example, the most recent survey had 60.9% of respondents reporting an increase in production activity and […]