- Prior was +0.8%
- Durable goods orders ex-transport +1.1% vs +0.5% expected
- Prior ex-transport +0.9%
- Durable goods ex-defense +8.1% vs -0.3% prior
- Non-defense capital goods ex-air -1.1% vs +0.4% expected
- Prior +3.4%
New orders for manufactured durable goods in April, up two consecutive months, increased $25.5 billion or 7.9 percent to $346.0 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau announced today. This followed a 1.3 percent March increase. Excluding transportation, new orders increased 1.1 percent. Excluding defense, new orders increased 8.1 percent. Transportation equipment, also up two consecutive months, led the increase, $23.1 billion or 21.5 percent to $130.9 billion.
For background, the Advance Report on Durable Goods Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories, and Orders, published monthly by the U.S. Census Bureau, is one of the most closely watched gauges of U.S. manufacturing activity and business investment. Released about 18 working days after each reference month at 8:30 a.m. ET, it covers new orders, shipments, unfilled orders, and inventories of products meant to last three or more years, from aircraft, vehicles, and machinery to computers and appliances.
A more comprehensive Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories, and Orders (M3) release follows roughly a week later. Headline durable goods orders are notoriously volatile, swinging on lumpy aircraft and defense bookings, so analysts focus on two cleaner cuts: new orders excluding transportation, which strips out Boeing-driven swings, and nondefense capital goods orders excluding aircraft, the so-called “core capex” series, which is treated as a real-time proxy for business investment intentions and feeds into GDP estimates.
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