Durable Goods Exceeded Expectations in October

Orders for big-ticket, US-made goods were helped by aircraft and autos. But excluding transportation, new orders decreased by 0.5%.

Transportation equipment, which has increased six of the last seven months, was up $2 billion, or 2.1%, to $97.8 billion, the government data showed.

Shipments of manufactured durable goods, up 16 of the last 17 months, rose 0.4% to $275.4 billion. That’s after a 0.3%-increase in September. Machinery, up 19 of the last 20 months, led the increase in that category. It was up $0.5 billion, or 1.3%, to $38.9 billion.

Click here for more detail on the October advance report from the US Census Bureau on durable goods manufacturers’ shipments, inventories, and orders. See also Figure 1 below.

Revised and Recently Benchmarked September Data

Revised seasonally adjusted September figures for all manufacturing industries were as follows: new orders, $551.0 billion (unchanged from $551.0 billion); shipments, $550.8 billion (revised from $550.3 billion); unfilled orders, $1,137.3 billion (revised from $1,137.8 billion), and total inventories, $801.2 billion (revised from $801.6 billion).

By David Schollaert, David@SteelMarketUpdate.com