The U.S.
Commerce Department said on Wednesday that the durable goods orders advanced
0.9 per cent m-o-m in February, following an upwardly revised 3.3 per cent m-o-m climb (from +3.1
per cent m-o-m) in January.
Economists
had expected a 1.0 per cent m-o-m fall.
According to
the report, the February increase was due to gains in orders in 7 of 9 sectors,
led by electrical equipment, appliances, and components (+2.0 per cent m-o-m),
transportation equipment (+1.5 per cent m-o-m), and primary metals (+1.2 per
cent m-o-m). Meanwhile,
capital goods (-1.5 per cent m-o-m) recorded a decrease in
orders, and computers and electronic products saw no change.
Orders for
durable goods excluding transportation increased 0.7 per cent m-o-m in February, following an
upwardly revised 0.1 per
cent m-o-m uptick (from flat m-o-m)
in the previous month, being better than economists’ forecast
of a 0.2 per cent m-o-m rise. This was the strongest monthly gain since March
2022 (+0.9 per cent m-o-m).
Elsewhere,
orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, a closely watched
proxy for business spending plans, fell 0.3 per cent m-o-m last month after an
upwardly revised 0.9 per cent m-o-m jump (from +0.8 per cent m-o-m) in January.
This marked the first monthly drop in four months. Economists had foreseen a 0.2 per cent m-o-m gain in core capital
goods orders for February.
On
a y-o-y basis, durable goods orders soared 2.3 per cent in February, while orders,
excluding transportation, edged up 0.1 per cent.