U.S. Factory Orders in Line with Consensus, Rise 0.6% in May

US Economy | Written by CEP News | Jul 02 08 14:06 GMT |
(CEP News) - The U.S. Census Bureau's factory orders report came in negligibly higher than the consensus forecast on Wednesday, increasing by 0.6% in May to contribute to an annual gain of 5.0%. The prior month's factory orders index was revised to show an increase of 1.3% from the previously reported 1.1% gain.

Economists were expecting a gain of 0.5% in the month.

Factory orders - the full report on manufacturers' shipments, inventories, and orders - is similar to the durable goods report but is larger in scope and includes data on non-durable goods, such as food, clothing and fuel.

New orders excluding transportation improved by 0.4% in the month, new orders ex-defence rose 0.3% and new orders ex-computers rose 0.5%.

Durable goods excluding transportation were upwardly revised to a 0.8% decline from the preliminary 0.9% decrease in last week's estimate in the durable goods report. This follows a downwardly revised gain of 1.9% in April. Annually, the index has moved up 1.4%.

Total orders for durable goods were unrevised from the flat reading in the advance report. In the previous month, new orders fell by 1.0%.

Non-defence capital goods excluding aircraft fell by 0.4% in the factory orders report, following a gain of 3.1% in the previous month.

Inventories increased by 0.5% for the month following a flat reading in April, while shipments advanced 0.1% following a gain of 2.7% in April.

The inventories-to-shipments ratio moved up at 1.23 in May after a downwardly revised 1.22 reading in April.

By Patrick McGee, pmcgee@economicnews.caThis email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it , edited by Stephen Huebl, shuebl@economicnews.caThis email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

CEP Newswires - CEP News © 2008. All Rights Reserved. www.economicnews.ca