MAY DURABLE GOODS ORDERS UNCHANGED, EX-TRANSPORTS -0.9%
Durable goods orders were unchanged in May, but from a downwardly revised April loss of 1% (originally reported as a 0.5% drop).
Excluding transportation, orders were down 0.9% following April’s 1.9% increase, initially reported as 2.5% – revised lower due to a less monumental increase in electrical equipment and bigger declines in computer and communications equipment orders than previously reported.
Excluding defense, durable goods orders fell 0.6%.
The overall May number was dampened by declines in orders for machinery (-5.3%), motor vehicles and parts (-3.3%) and primary metals (-1.3%). Gains in computers and both defense and nondefense aircraft and parts were not enough to offset those declines.
Orders of capital goods were up 1.5% in May following a 1.9% drop in April, driven by a 10.8% jump in orders of defense capital goods.
Though the May data are in line with expectations, the notable downward revisions take the wind out of April’s marginally optimistic sails.