ISM: Manufacturers Shrink For 9th Month In A Row

American manufacturing contracted for the ninth straight month, a survey showed, as uncertainty tied to ever-changing tariffs and a historic government shutdown weighed on business. The closely followed manufacturing index fell to a four-month low of 48.2% in November from 48.7% in the prior month, the Institute for Supply Management said Monday. Any number below 50% signals contraction.

New orders shrank for the third month in a row, offsetting a small bump in production in November. New orders are a sign of future production, and they have been hovering near the lowest levels in 15 years. Manufacturers continued to reduce staff by leaving open jobs unfilled or resorting to layoffs in some cases. Some two-thirds of companies said managing head counts is still the norm at their companies, as opposed to hiring.” Many companies say overseas suppliers are still cheaper even after high U.S. tariffs are factored in, giving them little incentive to seek out domestic sources that in many cases don’t even exist.

Read more at MarketWatch

Regional Surveys Continue to Highlight Uneven Manufacturing Sector Growth

The composite manufacturing index in the Fifth District declined from -4 to -15 in November. Meanwhile, the local business conditions index plummeted from -1 in October to -20 in November. Shipments fell back into negative territory, plunging from 4 to -14. New orders remained negative and contracted at a faster pace, dropping from -6 to -22 in November. After manufacturers in the Fifth District were more pessimistic about the future in October, changes to manufacturing activity followed suit in November. The Fifth District consists of Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas, the District of Columbia and most of West Virginia. On the flip side, manufacturers became more optimistic about the future in November, with the outlook for future local business conditions turning positive, rising from -5 in October to 1, an affirmative sign for December’s activity.

On the other hand, Texas factory activity expanded and at a notably faster pace than the prior month. The production index increased from 5.2 to 20.5, jumping above the average of 9.6. The new orders and capacity utilization indexes turned positive, rising 6.5 points to 4.8 and 20.5 points to 19.4, respectively. Despite perceptions worsening, improvements in these key indicators and uncertainty dropping are positive signs for sustained growth.

Read more at the Richmond Fed and Dallas Fed

US And UK Agree Zero Tariffs Deal On Pharmaceuticals

ritain will spend more on new medicines in exchange for avoiding tariffs on U.K. pharmaceutical exports to the U.S., the first major success in President Trump’s drive to get other countries to pay more for medicines that he says are unfairly subsidized by American consumers. The U.K. government will raise the net price it pays for new patented medicines by 25% and revamp a tax program to ease the burden on drug companies, according to a statement Monday by the U.S. Trade Representative.

The U.K. government said the extra 25% spending on new treatments would be the country’s first major increase in over two decades, allowing the approval of new medicines that previously might have been declined on cost-effective grounds, such as certain cancer treatments or therapies for rare diseases. As part of the deal, the U.S. guaranteed the U.K. would get zero tariffs for its pharmaceutical exports to the U.S. for at least three years, the governments said. The U.K. has long been a powerhouse in medicine discovery, from the 1928 penicillin breakthrough to the landmark Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine in 2020.

Read more at The WSJ

Middle East

• Hezbollah Leader Leaves Open Possibility Of New War With Israel – Reuters
• Trump Speaks To Netanyahu, Warns Israel Not To ‘Interfere’ In Syria – Times Of Israel
• Pope Leo, In Crisis-Hit Lebanon, Urges Faith Leaders To Unite For Peace - Reuters
• Israel's Netanyahu Appears In Court After Pardon Request Backed By Trump - Reuters
• Houthis Arrest 12 People Over 'CIA Spy Ring' In Yemen - MSN
• Taps May Run Dry In Iran, Where The Water Crisis Is So Severe It Can Be Seen From Space -CNN
• Interactive Map- Israel’s Operation In Gaza – Institute For The Study Of War
• Map – Conflicts in the Middle East – Live Universal Awareness Map

Ukraine

• Russia’s Arms-Makers Thrive Despite Sanctions, New Report Says – Politico
• Russia Claims To Have Captured Pokrovsk - DW
• Land And Security Are The Main Sticking Points As Russia And Ukraine Mull Trump’s Peace Proposal – The Hill
• Business Not War: The Secret US-Russia Deal’s Global Impact - Forbes
• Four People Killed, 40 Injured In Russian Strike On Ukraine's Dnipro, Kyiv Says - Reuters
• EU Tells Trump: You Can’t Pardon Putin For War Crimes In Ukraine - Politico
• Zelenskyy And France's Macron Spoke With US Envoy Steve Witkoff Ahead Of Talks With Putin - DW
• Macron - Zelensky: ‘No Peace Deal Without Ukraine And Europe’ – France 24
• Interactive Map: Assessed Control Of Terrain In Ukraine – Institute For The Study Of War
• Map – Tracking Russia’s Invasion Of Ukraine – Live Universal Awareness Map

Other Headlines

• Tracking Build-Up Of US Military Planes And Warships Near Venezuela – BBC
• White House Says Second Strike on Alleged Drug Boat Was Legal - WSJ
• Gangs Launch Large-Scale Attack In Haiti’s Central Region As Hundreds Flee Gunfire And Burning Homes - CNN
• France Wants To End Free Health Care For Foreign Pensioners - Politico
• Honduras Election On A Knife Edge As Trump-Backed Man Slightly Ahead - BBC
• Hong Kong Arrests More Suspects In Fire Probe As Death Toll Hits 151 - Reuters
• Global Arms Sales Soar to Record Highs - Newsweek
• Declassified Docs Reveal Nazi ‘Angel Of Death’ Was Allowed To Live Carefree Life After Auschwitz Horrors: Docs – NY Post
• Bird Flu Virus Has Killed Almost 9 Million Birds ― And Counting - DW
• Celebrating 1700 Years: 'Nicene Creed The Basic & Most Fundamental, Unifying Creed Of Christianity' – France 24

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New York Cellphone Ban Helping Student Engagement, Teacher Effectiveness, Survey Says

New York’s schools are seeing more student engagement and increased teaching efficiency as a result of the state’s new bell-to-bell ban on cellphones in the classroom, according to a survey released Monday by Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office. According to the survey, which was distributed to November and received more than 350 responses from school administrators, 92% of respondents said the transition to the policy, implemented at the beginning of this academic school year, went smoothly. It also found 83% of respondents reported more positive classrooms and better student engagement, and 75% reported an improvement in teachers’ ability to teach effectively.

A district administrator in the North Country said the policy “has resulted in so many positives for our students, specifically during classes and lunch. Students are making eye contact with adults and peers, they're organizing games that involve thinking and problem solving, and they're engaging with one another instead of their phones. These are all hard skills that develop during school and are vital in the workforce later in life. I could not be happier for our students, staff and our school community.”

Read more at NY State of Politics

Fed Ends Quantitative Tightening on Dec 1. What that Means for Interest Rates

The U.S. Federal Reserve delivered a one-two punch of policy news on Oct. 29, announcing not only a widely expected interest rate cut but also a plan to halt quantitative tightening (QT) by December. The Fed cut its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points (0.25%), the second such cut this year, citing a softening labor market and other mixed economic signals. At the same time, officials said they will stop reducing the size of the Fed’s balance sheet as soon as December, effectively marking an end to the QT program. For the average person, terms like “quantitative tightening” might sound arcane.

With QT the Fed allows the bonds it holds on its balance sheet to mature without fully replacing them. In practice, this means the Fed had been letting a set amount of its bond holdings “run off” each month, those bonds would expire, and the Fed would not buy new ones, thereby shrinking the money supply. The goal of QT is to pull liquidity out of the financial system by reducing the amount of cash circulating in markets. Essentially, money that was once added to the economy through quantitative easing gets removed as the Fed gradually unwinds its asset holdings. Ending QT means the Fed will roll over maturing bonds and reinvest proceeds, removing a source of upward pressure on yields. This could help stabilize or slightly lower long-term rates and mortgage costs, providing relief to the housing market and borrowers more broadly.

Read more at City & State

New York State's Effort to Replace the NLRB Is Enjoined by Court

On Nov. 26, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York issued a preliminary injunction barring New York State from enforcing the recent legislative amendment that gave the New York Public Employment Relations Board (“PERB”) jurisdiction over private sector labor relations matters in New York. The Court found that federal law preempted the State’s action and gave exclusive jurisdiction to the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”). Two lawsuits to challenge the legislation were quickly filed. The NLRB sued New York to protect its jurisdiction. That matter remains pending. At about the same time, Amazon.Com Services, LLC (“Amazon”) filed suit to enjoin the prosecution and investigation of an unfair labor practice charge filed with PERB under the new law.

In granting the injunction, the federal court recognized that the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution establishes federal law as the “supreme Law of the Land . . . any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding,” which means that when federal and state law conflict, federal law prevails and state law is preempted. The Court in the Amazon matter rejected all of New York State’s arguments to create an exception to these established principles and defend the legislative amendment. Given that Amazon faced an immediate risk of parallel and potentially inconsistent proceedings from the state and federal regulatory schemes, the Court found there was irreparable harm justifying an immediate injunction.

Read more at Bond Schoeneck & King

More Policy and Politics Headlines

• ‘Time Is Not Our Friend’: Health Care Scramble Begins Amid Mixed Signals From Trump - Politico
• Where Do Fed Voters Stand on a December Rate Cut? - WSJ
• Appeals Court Disqualifies Trump’s N.J. Prosecutor Pick Alina Habba, Rejecting DOJ Challenge - CNBC
• D.C. National Guard Shooting Suspect Spent "Weeks On End" In Isolation, Struggled With Mental Health, 2024 Emails Say - CBS
• West Virginia High School Remembers Slain National Guard Member - Politico
• Poll Shows Republican Van Epps Holding Slight Lead Over Democrat Behn In Tennessee’s Special Congressional Race - WSMV
• Indiana House Releases Draft Congressional Map That Could Net Republicans 2 Seats - Politico
• Second Term Slip: A New Warning Sign For Trump And The Republican Party - CNN
• Luigi Mangione's Arrest Videos Played At Hearings Over US Healthcare Executive's Killing - Reuters
• NY State Gaming Board Approves Three New York City Casinos – Daily News
• As Regime Change Looms At The Fed, One Candidate Emerges As Frontrunner For Chair – CNBC

Holiday Stress | Employer Tips to Help Your Employee’s Season Be a Little Brighter

We all feel stressed from time to time, but the holidays bring unique strains that pervade into the workplace and reduce productivity. Managers and HR supervisors should understand how to help identify and address issues stemming from employees’ holiday stress in the workplace. Employers are becoming increasingly focused on the physical, financial and emotional well-being of their workforce. Guiding employees to services available through your benefits program is an opportunity to connect them to the resources they may need to help them through the holiday season.

• Enhance Well-Being Programs. Incorporate wellness breaks to enable employees to refocus, such as encouraging a walk outside or granting access to meditation and yoga.
• Support Time Off and Flexible Working Arrangements. Many employees may need increased flexibility during the holidays. This could take the form of work-from-home arrangements, alternative work schedules and encouraging employees to seek work/life balance, including time away.
• Create Internal Networking Groups. Motivate employees to work together as a team to share the workload, connect with one another, share ideas and receive peerto-peer support.
• Lean on Your Employee Assistance Program (EAP). Often an under-promoted and under-utilized benefit, your EAP can offer meaningful support to employees concerned with their emotional well-being during this stressful time of year.
• Reinforce Mental Health and Substance Abuse Coverage. If needs extend beyond what your EAP can provide, be sure employees understand benefits coverage for mental health and substance use disorder services for those enrolled in your medical plan.

Read more at Brown & Brown

Upcoming Council Programs

Events

Manufacturing Champions Award Breakfast - Friday May 8, 2026 -7:45 - 10:00 AM. The DoubleTree Poughkeepsie.

Networks

HR Sub Council Meeting Topic TBD, January 14, 2026, 8:15 - 11:00. Selux Corporation, Highland.

Insight Exchange On Demand Webinars

• See previous episodes here!

Webinars and Seminars

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Training

Certificate in Manufacturing Leadership Program Winter Session, Virtual. Supervisor Training Program for Hudson Valley Manufacturers. 7 Courses (15 half day sessions) January 6 - March 11 Via Zoom.

Lean Six Sigma Green Belt This program combines online coursework, with live Zoom sessions, to deliver a flexible and effective learning experience in Lean Six Sigma methodologies. Most Mondays March 2 - June 8 Via Zoom.

(Special Info session for those who are 'Green Belt curious' February 23rd)

Lean Six Sigma: Yellow Belt - Yellow Belt is an approach to process improvement that merges the complementary concepts and tools from both Six Sigma and Lean approaches. 3 Full days - March 9,10 & 11 - DCC Fishkill.

Trade Wars

• CFO Signals Survey: Trade Uncertainties Bring a New Focus on Pricing - WSJ
• Tariff Fraud: 5 Steps to Effectively Mitigate Risk - Deloitte
• EU Carbon Border Tax Goes Easy On Dirty Chinese Imports, Industry Warns - Politico
• Tariffs Remain Heart Of Uncertainty: PMI – Manufacturing Dive
• America’s Tariffs Jolted the Global Economy. Its AI Spending Is Helping Save It. - WSJ
• FBI Chief: China Agreed On Plan To Stop Fentanyl-Related Chemicals – Reuters

Cyber Monday Trends: Shoppers Spending More While Picking Fewer Items This Holiday Season

Retail spending over the holiday weekend exceeded Adobe's estimates, and other analysts also believe consumer spending appears strong. They've had more time to analyze the situation: many Americans started holiday shopping early this year and were scouring for sales ahead of Black Friday, said Vivek Pandya, lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights." Consumers now expect comparable deals to happen earlier during Cyber Week and many are not waiting to hit the buy button," Pandya said in a statement. "Cyber Monday has essentially become ‘last call’ for big discounts during the holiday season."

Americans are spending more money on fewer items, potentially because they're "trading up," Adobe said. But inflation and tariffs may also be a factor. Promotions were similar or less generous than last year at more than 70% of the retail companies tracked by J.P.Morgan, analysts said Monday. Online shoppers tended to check out with fewer items and order volume fell 1% year-over-year on Black Friday, while average prices increased 7%, said Salesforce, a software company. Through the weekend and early Monday, order volume rose 1% year-over-year, but prices were up 5%, according to Salesforce.

Read more at Yahoo Finance

Eli Lilly Cuts Cash Prices Of Zepbound Weight Loss Drug Vials On Direct-To-Consumer Site

Eli Lilly on Monday said it is lowering the cash prices of single-dose vials of its blockbuster weight loss drug Zepbound on its direct-to-consumer platform, LillyDirect, building on efforts by the company and the Trump administration to make the medicine more accessible. The announcement also comes weeks after chief rival Novo Nordisk unveiled additional discounts on the cash prices of its obesity and diabetes drugs.

Starting Monday, cash-paying patients with a valid prescription can get the starting dose of Zepbound vials for as low as $299 per month on LillyDirect, down from a previous price of $349 per month. They can also access the next dose, 5 milligrams, for $399 per month and all other doses for $449 per month, down from $499 per month across those sizes. Zepbound carries a list price of roughly $1,086 per month. That price point, and spotty insurance coverage for weight loss drugs in the U.S., have been significant barriers to access for some patients.

Read more at CNBC

General Motors Invests $500M In Gas-Powered Car Factory

General Motors is making a massive investment to substantially boost its output of gas-powered models at its US factories. In an announcement released on November 20, the automaker announced that it will invest $550 million in two component plants in Michigan and Ohio that directly supply plants making some of its most well-known cars, particularly as it plans to ramp up production of its larger SUVs.

Specifically, the $550 million is split between a $250 million investment in GM’s Parma Metal Center in Ohio, and $300 million to its Romulus Propulsion Systems plant in Michigan. The Parma Metal Center, near Cleveland, is one of GM’s most important and most productive production operations, as it supplies sheet metal components for a wide range of GM-branded vehicles built across North America.

Read more at AutoBlog

Nvidia Takes $2 Billion Stake In Synopsys With Expanded Computing Power Partnership

Nvidia on Monday announced it has purchased $2 billion of Synopsys’ common stock as part of a strategic partnership to accelerate computing and artificial intelligence engineering solutions. As part of the multiyear partnership, Nvidia will help Synopsys accelerate its portfolio of compute-intensive applications, advance agentic AI engineering, expand cloud access and develop joint go-to-market initiatives, according to a release. Nvidia said it purchased Synopsys’ stock at $414.79 per share.

Nvidia and Synopsys have a long-standing relationship, so Monday’s announcement builds on their existing partnership.  Synopsys offers services like silicon design and electronic design automation that help its customers build AI-powered products. “This is a huge deal,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” on Monday. “The partnership we’re announcing today is about revolutionizing one of the most compute-intensive industries in the world: design and engineering.”

Read more at CNBC

Airbus Rolls Out Prototype A350F In March Toward 2026 Certification

Airbus rolled its first A350F out of the factory last week. It now moves to another building for the installation of systems and engines. The first flight is planned for the third quarter next year, as a second freighter is completed to begin regimented flight testing. Airbus hopes to deliver the first freighter in the second half of 2027. Boeing’s new freighter, the 777-8F, is still a “paper” airplane. With 59 orders from six customers, entry into service (EIS) is now estimated for 2029 (some say 2030). Airbus has more than 80 orders from 13 customers. Airbus claims a 58% market share of new freighter orders.

A350F sales fall short of the 120 sales for new-build A300-600Fs, Airbus' best-selling freighter, most of which went to package operators FedEx and UPS. However, neither has chosen between the A350F or the 777-8F for their next airplanes to replace the decades-old Boeing (McDonnell Douglas) MD-11Fs. The future of these aircraft is uncertain following the Nov. 4 crash of a UPS jet in Louisville (KY).

Read more at Leeham News

Pentagon Signs $1.6B Contract With Pratt & Whitney For Next-Year F-35 Engine Support

The United States Navy has awarded Pratt & Whitney a contract worth up to $1.6 billion to sustain the F135 propulsion system used across all variants of the F-35 fighter jet. The undefinitized contract covers a broad range of support activities through November 2026, including global maintenance, spare parts, software updates, and depot repair for U.S. and allied operators.

The F135 engine, manufactured by Pratt & Whitney and operated by the U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps — as well as several partner nations — is the core propulsion system of the F-35 air vehicle. The new contract ensures that the global fleet continues to receive unit-level and depot-level support as the number of jets in service continues to grow. The F135 engine remains one of the most complex and maintenance-intensive propulsion systems in U.S. aviation, powering the F-35A, F-35B, and F-35C variants. As more allied nations adopt the aircraft and as operational tempo increases, global sustainment contracts like this one are essential for maintaining fleet readiness, parts availability, and system reliability.

Read more at Defense Blog

America’s Power Grid Will Be Able To Withstand The $2.5 Trillion A.I. Datacenter Building Boom

Between now and 2030, the giants of A.I. like OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta aim to more than double the computing power dedicated to growing and operating their non-human minds. They currently use about 40 gigawatts of power, enough for 30 million homes. The cost of this ambition will be astronomical — about $50 billion per gigawatt of computing power built for a total of $2.5 trillion over the next five years alone. Roughly 80% of that will go to buy GPUs made by the likes of Nvidia and AMD; the rest — some $500 billion — will provide the energy via new power plants and transmission lines.

At the trajectory these hyperscalers are on, Goldman Sachs figures that by 2030 American datacenters will consume 500 terawatt hours per year — more than 10% of total domestic electricity. “I think we should already be raising the alarm on the potential for facilities to complete construction but be without power in 2028 and 2029,” says Zach Krause, an analyst at East Daley, a Denver energy consultancy. “I hope they don’t march into a wall.” Plenty of datacenter developers are taking the situation into their own hands, building their own power generation on site rather than relying on utility companies to hook them up. These "behind-the-meter" generators are especially prevalent in Texas, which has its own power grid that isn't subject to federal regulatory oversight enabling easier permitting.

Read more at Forbes

Oxford University Press Picks "Rage Bait" As Its Word Of The Year For 2025

Even if you don't know the meaning of the Oxford University Press' word of the year for 2025, you've probably been a victim of it on social media. The publisher for the Oxford English Dictionary said on Monday it chose "rage bait" as its top word for the year, capturing the internet zeitgeist of 2025. The word of the year is selected by lexicographers at Oxford University Press who analyze new and emerging words, as well as changes in the way language is being used, to identify words of "cultural significance."

The phrase refers to online content that is "deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative or offensive," to drive traffic to a particular social media account, Oxford said in a statement. "The person producing it will bask in the millions, quite often, of comments and shares and even likes sometimes,'' lexicographer Susie Dent told BBC. This is a result of the algorithms used by social media companies, "because although we love fluffy cats, we'll appreciate that we tend to engage more with negative content and content that really provokes us."

Read more at CBS News

Quote of the Day

"I shall endeavour to discharge my duty to society, considering myself only as the citizen, moved by the melancholy necessity of taking up arms for the public safety."

Richard Montgomery - American/Irish General of the Continental Army and the namesake of Montgomery NY. He was killed leading his forces at the Battle of Quebec at the age of 37. He was born in Ireland on this day in 1738.

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