Durable-goods orders jump 4% in March, but investment falls again
Source: MarketWatch
Market Pulse
Durable-goods orders jump 4% in March, but investment falls again
Published: Apr 24, 2015 8:30 a.m. ET
by Jeffrey Bartash, Reporter
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Orders for durable U.S. goods jumped a seasonally adjusted 4% in March, but the increase was driven almost entirely by higher demand for autos, commercial jets and military hardware. A key measure of business investment, however, fell for the seventh straight month to underscore a slowdown in how much companies are spending. So-called core orders excluding aircraft and military goods fell 0.5%. Shipments of core capital goods, a category used to help determine quarterly economic growth, dropped 0.4% in March. That's another sign first-quarter gross domestic product is likely to be quite weak. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected a 0.9% gain in orders for durable goods in March. The 1.4% decline in orders for February was unchanged.
Read more: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/durable-goods-orders-jump-4-in-march-but-investment-falls-again-2015-04-24
The Census Bureau does not make linking to this an easy task.
It's the gummint; they want this info spread around, so I went over four paragraphs.
Advance Report on Durable Goods Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories and Orders March 2015
FRIDAY, APRIL 24, 2015, AT 8:30 A.M. EDT
Adriana Stoica
Economic Indicators Division
(301) 763-4832
M3-1 (15)-03
CB15-72
New Orders
New orders for manufactured durable goods in March increased $9.3 billion or 4.0 percent to $240.2 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau announced today. This increase, up two of the last three months, followed a 1.4 percent February decrease. Excluding transportation, new orders decreased 0.2 percent. Excluding defense, new orders increased 2.6 percent.
Transportation equipment, also up two of the last three months, drove the increase, $9.5 billion or 13.5 percent to $80.3 billion.
Shipments
Shipments of manufactured durable goods in March, up following two consecutive monthly decreases, increased $2.7 billion or 1.1 percent to $246.7 billion. This followed a 0.2 percent February decrease.
Transportation equipment, up three of the last four months, drove the increase, $3.2 billion or 4.3 percent to $78.0 billion.
Unfilled Orders
Unfilled orders for manufactured durable goods in March, up following three consecutive monthly decreases, increased $0.3 billion or slightly to $1,156.4 billion. This followed a 0.5 percent February decrease. Transportation equipment, also up following three consecutive monthly decreases, drove the increase, $2.3 billion or 0.3 percent to $734.5 billion.
Inventories
Inventories of manufactured durable goods in March, up twenty-three of the last twenty-four months, increased $0.3 billion or 0.1 percent to $412.9 billion. This was at the highest level since the series was first published on a NAICS basis in 1992 and followed a 0.2 percent February increase.
Computers and electronic products, up seven of the last eight months, drove the increase, $0.3 billion or 0.7 percent to $50.1 billion.
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