U.S. Durable Goods Orders Rise 4.9%, Core Rises 1.8% In January
By Kitco NewsThursday February 25, 2016 08:36
(Kitco News) - The U.S. manufacturing sector found some much needed momentum last month, as orders for durable goods increased, ending two consecutive months of declines, according to the latest data from Department of Commerce.
Thursday, new order of durable goods rose by $11.1 billion or 4.9% to $237.5 billion in January, following December 4.6% drop.
According to consensus forecast, economist were expecting to see a 3.0% rise this month.
Core durable goods, which excludes the volatile transportation sector increased a solid 1.8%, up from December's revised fall of 0.7%. Economists were expecting to see a 0.2% increase.
Although the data was better than expected, Royce Mendes, senior economist at CIBC World Markets, said that the gains are just making up for the weakness from the prior two months. He noted that the three-month annualized trend shows that orders are still down 6.2%.
"Overall, orders were encouraging in January, but we’ll need to see more ahead if business investment is to be a meaningful contributor to growth in 2016," he said.
By Neils Christensen of Kitco News; nchristensen@kitco.com
Follow Neils Christensen @neils_C
