Following February’s surprise slump, March Durable Goods Orders were expected to rebound and preliminary data showed just that – a big beat.
March preliminary durable goods orders jumped 2.7% MoM (from a revised higher -1.1% drop in February)
However, YoY Durable Goods Orders slowed to just 0.8%…
Excluding transportation-equipment demand, which tends to be volatile, orders rose 0.4 percent following two straight declines. Defense capital-goods orders rose 7.4 percent.
Of course the data is extremely noisy with such swings as this…
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nondefense aircraft orders +31.2%
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Defense aircraft new orders +17.7%
And the business spending proxy – Capital Goods Orders non-Defense, Ex Air surprised to the upside…
However, shipments did disappoint, falling 0.2% MoM…
Some figures used to calculate gross domestic product were mixed: Shipments of non-military capital goods excluding aircraft fell 0.2 percent, missing forecasts for a gain, after an upwardly revised 0.2 percent rise the prior month.
As Bloomberg notes, the improvement in equipment orders signals manufacturers are seeing stable demand, which should contribute to a still-solid pace of economic growth in the first quarter. At the same time, companies must contend with larger inventories heading into the second quarter, a factor expected to boost gross domestic product in the short-term but weigh on it later.
via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2GwYv7P Tyler Durden