US Factory Orders Plunged Most Since COVID Lockdowns In October

The chaotic time series of US Factory Orders was expected to swing to a big loss (-3.00% MoM) in October (data released today) after a big jump in September and big drop in July (and a big jump in June!).

However, factory orders tumbled even more than expected, down 3.6% MoM – the biggest drop since the COVID lockdowns (April 2020). September was also revised lower (making October’s decline even worse) from +2.8% MoM to +2.3% MoM…

Source: Bloomberg

The big monthly decline and revisions dragged orders down 2.1% YoY (the biggest drop since Sept 2020).

Core factory orders also dropped (-1.2% Mom), leaving them down 2.2% YoY – the eight month in a row of annual declines…

Source: Bloomberg

The final Durable Goods Orders data for October confirmed the preliminary print plunge down 5.4% MoM.

Finally, we note that it could have been a lot worse as Defense spending shot up 24.7% MoM (as non-defense dropped 15.8% MoM0…

All hail the Military-Industrial Complex.