New orders for durable goods in the United States went up 5.5% in May, which is the biggest jump since March of last year. Orders only went up 1.4% in April.
Analysts only expected orders to increase by 1.9% in May. In the largest increase in 14 months, durable goods orders for the U.S. totaled about $210.7-billion.
Outside of planes and the transportation industry, orders for durable goods actually decreased unexpectedly by 0.2% according to the Commerce Department. Reuters reports:
Orders for transportation equipment gained 21.2 percent in May, the biggest rise since July 2002, on a 164.8 percent surge in non-defense aircraft and parts orders.
Capital goods orders gained 14.5 percent in the month, the biggest rise since October 2001, and non-defense capital goods rose by the same amount, a record high for that category.
However, non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, seen as a proxy for business spending, dropped 2.3 percent, the biggest slide since October 2004.
“We are seeing a temporary slowdown associated with working off a slight inventory buildup,” said Wrightson ICAP LLC chief economist Louis Crandall prior to the report.
The aircraft orders have been rolling in for Boeing, not to mention French rival Airbus. At the Paris Air Show last week, both companies increased their orders by more than half.
Automakers haven’t been having the best of luck with sales lately. GM and Ford both had sales fall by over 10% last month and are cutting down production.
Chris is a staff writer for Murdok. Visit Murdok for the latest ebusiness news.
