Conditions in the region’s manufacturing sector deteriorated significantly in October, according to firms polled this month.

The survey’s broadest measure of manufacturing conditions, the diffusion index of current activity, decreased from 3.8 in September to ‐37.5, its largest one-month decline ever.

—Business Outlook Survey

Capacity utilization, which measures the proportion of plants in use, fell to 76.4 percent from 78.7 percent the prior month, which was lower than the Bloomberg median estimate of 77.9%