The U.S.
Commerce Department announced on Friday that the durable goods orders increased
0.7 per cent m-o-m in April, following a downwardly revised 0.8 per cent m-o-m advance
(+2.6 per cent m-o-m) in March. This marked the third straight monthly gain in
durable goods orders.
Economists
had forecast a 0.8 per cent m-o-m decrease.
According to
the report, the April increase was due to gains in orders in 8 of 9 sectors,
led by primary metal (+1.3 per cent m-o-m), transportation equipment (+1.2 per
cent m-o-m) and electrical equipment, appliances, and components: (+0.9 per
cent m-o-m). Meanwhile, all other durable goods (-0.2 per cent m-o-m) was the
only sector that posted a decrease in orders.
Orders for durable
goods excluding transportation went up 0.4 per cent m-o-m in April, following a
downwardly revised flat m-o-m performance (from +0.2 per cent m-o-m) in the previous month, better than economists’ estimate of a 0.1 per cent m-o-m gain.
Elsewhere,
orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, a closely watched
proxy for business spending plans, rose 0.3 per cent m-o-m last month after a
downwardly revised 0.1 per cent m-o-m fall (from +0.2 per cent m-o-m) in March.
Economists had expected a 0.1 per cent
m-o-m uptick in core capital goods orders for April.
On a y-o-y
basis, durable goods orders grew 0.5 per cent, while orders, excluding
transportation, surged 2.1 per cent.