The U.S.
Commerce Department announced on Thursday that the durable goods orders plunged
6.6 per cent m-o-m in June, following an unrevised 0.1 per cent m-o-m uptick in May. This
marked the first monthly decline in durable goods orders since January (-6.9
per cent m-o-m).
Economists
had expected a 0.3 per cent m-o-m advance.
According to
the report, the June tumble was due to decreases in orders in 4 of 9 sectors, led
by transportation equipment (-20.5 per cent m-o-m) and capital goods (-18.4 per
cent m-o-m).
Meanwhile, orders
for durable goods excluding transportation increased 0.5 per cent m-o-m in June,
following an unrevised 0.1 per cent m-o-m fall in the previous month, better than economists’ forecast
of a 0.2 per cent m-o-m rise. This was the strongest monthly gain since
November (+0.5 per cent m-o-m).
Elsewhere,
orders for non-defence capital goods excluding aircraft, a closely watched
proxy for business spending plans, jumped 1.0 per cent m-o-m last month after a
downwardly revised 0.9 per cent m-o-m drop (from -0.6 per cent m-o-m) in May.
This represented the largest monthly advance since March 2022 (+1.2 per cent
m-o-m). Economists had foreseen a 0.2
per cent m-o-m increase in core capital goods orders for June.
On a y-o-y
basis, durable goods orders fell 2.0 per cent, while orders, excluding
transportation, surged 1.3 per cent.