Airplanes Boost November Durable Goods Orders
Durable goods orders in November rose month over month but fell short of expectations even given a sharp downward adjustment in October's total.
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.
The U.S. Department of Commerce reported Friday morning that durable goods orders for November rose by 0.8% compared to the prior month to $250.8 billion. The October total was revised downward by 4.3% to $248.9 billion.
Excluding transportation, new orders dropped by 0.3% and excluding defense new orders were down 0.1%. Transportation equipment orders, primarily for airplanes, rose 2.9% to $87 billion.
Economists were looking for a month-over-month increase of 1.4% and a gain of 0.3% excluding transportation. Neither estimate was met.
Aircraft orders, both civilian and defense, rose 17.7% for commercial planes and 15.4% for military aircraft. Orders for primary metals rose 1.0%, fabrications were up 0.5% and communications equipment added 0.8% for the month.
[nativounit]
The good news pretty much ends there. Orders were weak for electrical equipment (down 0.7%), unchanged for computers and down 0.2% for motor vehicles. The biggest disappointment was machinery orders, the heart of the capital goods group. That tumbled by 1.7%.
New orders in non-defense capital goods (aka, core capital goods) rose 0.7%, including aircraft, and fell 0.6% excluding aircraft orders. Shipments of core capital goods fell 0.1% in November.
Stock futures pushed higher after both the durable goods and final third-quarter GDP reports were released, but investors continue to be wary of an impending government shutdown.
[wallst_email_signup]
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Paul Ausick has been writing for 247Wallst.com for more than a decade. He has written extensively on investing in the energy, defense, and technology sectors. In a previous life, he wrote technical documentation and managed a marketing communications group in Silicon Valley.
He has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Chicago and now lives in Montana, where he fishes for trout in the summer and stays inside during the winter.
