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US durable goods orders continue rising in February, Commerce says
Orders for goods made to last more than three years, a key indicator of trends in business investment, jumped past forecasts last month amid increased demand for transport equipment, including for civilian and military aircraft.
Total durable goods orders increased by 3.1% month-on-month in February to reach $247.7bn, according to the Department of Commerce.
In January, total orders had fallen by 3.5%.
Economists had forecast a rise of just 1.6%.
Excluding transportation, orders were higher by 1.2% over the month to $164.2bn (consensus: 0.5%).
Orders for transportation equipment were strengthened by 7.1% over the month to $83.5bn, with those for non-defence aircraft and parts 25.5% higher to $13.1bn, while orders for defence aircraft jumped 37.7% to $3.56bn.
Capital goods orders, excluding those for defence and aircraft, or so-called 'core' capital goods orders, advanced by 1.8% versus January to $67.8bn (Barclays: 0.5%).
In comparison to a year ago, 'core' orders were 7.4% ahead.
"The headline was boosted by rebounds in orders for both civilian and military aircraft, and autos, but the key story here is the 1.8% jump in orders for core capital goods orders. Recent months have been soft, following a very strong summer and early fall, but we have been assuming that the underlying upward trend would re-emerge in due course, consistent with the strong survey evidence," said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
"We remain very bullish on capex this year, given strong earnings growth, easy credit, and the impact of the tax cut, but the data are volatile and very short runs of numbers need to be viewed with skepticism."