Durable Goods Proved to Be Quite Durable in July
The U.S. Department of Commerce has reported that durable goods orders were rather durable in July.
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The U.S. Department of Commerce has reported that durable goods orders were rather durable in July. New orders rose by 2.0%, much better than the -0.4% expected by Bloomberg and better than the 0.1% gain expected by the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones. Also, the June report was revised to a gain of 4.1% from a preliminary report of a gain of 3.4%.
In terms of real world dollars, that 2% gain was up $4.6 billion to $241.1 billion. Transportation equipment was up for the second straight month, up $3.8 billion to $83.2 billion in July.
Unfilled orders for manufactured durable goods in July rose by $2.3 billion (or 0.2%) to $1.1975 trillion. This followed a virtually unchanged June increase.
Excluding transportation, the gain was a more moderate 0.6% in July. Bloomberg had that consensus estimate at 0.4%, and the June report was revised up to 1.0% from a preliminary report of 0.8%.
There is also a core durable goods reading that is measured by new orders for non-defense capital goods, excluding aircraft. This rose for the second straight month, up to 2.2% in July, and that appears to be the biggest single month gain for just over a year.
Inventories of manufactured durable goods in July fell by $0.1 billion to $402.1 billion. Primary metals, down six consecutive months, drove the decrease with a drop of $0.2 billion (-0.5%) to $37.1 billion.
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Jon Ogg has been a financial news analyst since 1997. Mr. Ogg set up one of the first audio squawk box services for traders called TTN, which he sold in 2003. He has previously worked as a licensed broker to some of the top U.S. and E.U. financial institutions, managed capital, and has raised private capital at the seed and venture stage. He has lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, as well as New York and Chicago, and he now lives in Houston, Texas. Jon received a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance at University of Houston in 1992. www.247wallst.com.
