The U.S.
Commerce Department announced Tuesday that the durable goods orders jumped
1.4 per cent m-o-m in February, following a downwardly revised 6.9 per cent
m-o-m plunge (from -6.1 per cent m-o-m) in January. This was the first monthly gain
in durable goods orders in three months.
Economists
had foreseen a 1.1 per cent m-o-m advance.
According to
the report, the February increase was due to gains in orders in 7 of 9 sectors,
led by transportation equipment (+3.3 per cent m-o-m).
Meanwhile,
orders for durable goods excluding transportation rose 0.5 per cent m-o-m in February,
following an unrevised 0.3 per cent
m-o-m drop in the
previous month, slightly better
than economists’ prediction of a 0.4 per cent m-o-m increase.
Elsewhere,
orders for non-defence capital goods excluding aircraft, a closely watched
proxy for business spending plans, climbed 0.7 per cent m-o-m last month after
a downwardly revised 0.4 per cent m-o-m decrease (from +0.1 per cent m-o-m) in January.
Economists had foreseen a 0.1 per cent
m-o-m increase in core capital goods orders for January.
On a y-o-y
basis, durable goods orders grew 1.8 per cent, while orders, excluding
transportation, surged 3.2 per cent.