EmailFactory orders increased 2.4% in July after declining 0.4% in June, which was an upward revision to the original report of a 0.8% decline in June. The Briefing.com consensus expected factory orders to increase 1.8%.
Durable goods orders increased 4.1% in July (from 4.0% in the advance report) after falling 1.1% in June. Nondurable goods orders increased 1.0% in July, up from 0.2% in June.
As the advance durable goods orders showed last week, the increase in durable orders was mainly due to a 43.4% increase in nondefense aircraft orders and a 9.9% increase in primary metals. Orders for every other top-level durables sector declined in July. Excluding transportation and primary metals, durable orders declined 0.9% and total orders increased only 0.4%.
Business investment demand was not as poor as the advance durables report originally revealed. Orders for nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft were revised up from -1.5% to -0.9%. That is still a decline, however, after increasing 0.8% in June.
Unfilled orders continued to grow, increasing 0.8% in July after rising 0.3% in June. The growth in unfilled orders should keep shipments positive in the event of a downturn in manufacturing orders next month.
