Economy
Durable goods orders rise again in February
Written by Stephanie Ritenbaugh
March 26, 2025
For the second month in a row, new orders for manufactured durable goods rose in February.
New orders gained $2.7 billion, or 0.9%, to reach $289.3 billion, the US Census Bureau found in its latest monthly report.
This followed a 3.3% boost in January.
Transportation equipment led the increase, rising 1.5% to $98.3 billion.
Excluding transportation, new orders increased by 0.7%. Excluding defense, new orders increased by 0.8%, according to the Census data.
Stephanie Ritenbaugh
Read more from Stephanie RitenbaughLatest in Economy
Consumer confidence falls for fourth consecutive month
People remain concerned about inflation, trade policies, and tariffs.
Housing starts ticked up in February
Single-family starts last month hit a rate of 1.10 million, a month-over-month increase of 11.4%, census data shows.
Architecture billings continued to slide in February
The ABI is a leading indicator for near-term nonresidential construction activity and projects business conditions ~9-12 months down the road (the typical lead time between architecture billings and construction spending).
New York state manufacturing activity tumbles in March
After a modest recovery in February, business activity in New York state’s manufacturing sector declined sharply in March, according to the latest Empire State Manufacturing Survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.