Recent Updates
- New Zealand: Food Price Index (Jul)
- New Zealand: Jobseeker Support by Territorial Authority (Jul)
- Korea: Import & Export Price Indexes Press (Jul)
- US: Business Formation Statistics, Producer Prices (Jul)
- US: Business Formation Statistics by State (Jul)
- more updates...
Economy in Brief
U.S. Unemployment Claims Continue on an Uptrend
Initial claims for unemployment insurance filed in the week ended August 6 rose 14,000 to 262,000...
RICS Survey Points to More U.K. Housing Sector Weakness
The survey of housing market conditions in the U.K. continues to show strength in prices versus weakness...
U.S. CPI Unchanged in July with Drop in Energy Prices
Consumer prices were unchanged in July after an outsized 1.3% m/m jump in June...
U.S. Federal Government Budget Deficit Shrinks in July
The U.S. Treasury Department reported a federal budget deficit of $211.1 billion in July...
U.S. Mortgage Applications Rose Slightly in the Latest Week
Mortgage applications increased 0.2% (-62.9% y/y) from one week earlier...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller November 3, 2005
Factory inventories fell another 0.1% in September following a deepened 0.2% decline in August even though higher prices recently have boosted petroleum inventories, (+24.9% y/y). Less petroleum, factory inventories fell 0.1% (+4.1% y/y) in September for the third decline in the last four months and have been virtually unchanged since March.
Inventory declines last month centered mostly in nondurables industries where textile products fell 0.9% (-0.1% y/y) and paper products fell 0.8% (+2.5% y/y). Plastics & rubber products also fell a sharp 1.8% (+6.4% y/y) and paints & coatings inventories fell 1.0% (+6.3% y/y).
Electrical equipment inventories rose 1.0% (3.2% y/y) after four months of declines while machinery inventories rose 0.2% (9.3% y/y). Computers & electronic components rose 0.1% (-0.3% y/y) but electronic computer inventories rose 4.4% (0.9% y/y).
Factory shipments fell 0.5% after an upwardly revised 2.1% surge in August, however, less a 3.4% jump in shipments from petroleum refineries factory shipments fell 0.9% (3.9% y/y).
Factory sector orders fell 1.7%. The advance report of a 2.1% drop in durables goods orders was revised to -2.4%.
Unfilled orders jumped 0.7% on top of the 1.6% August spurt. Less the transportation sector backlogs surged 1.2% (8.9% y/y) and the ratio of unfilled orders to shipments jumped.
Factory Survey (NAICS) | Sept | Aug | Y/Y | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Inventories | -0.1% | -0.2% | 4.9% | 7.7% | -1.1% | -5.4% |
New Orders | -1.7% | 2.9% | 7.0% | 9.3% | 3.5% | -2.5% |
Shipments | -0.5% | 2.1% | 6.6% | 9.5% | 1.5% | -2.5% |
Unfilled Orders | 0.7% | 1.6% | 10.4% | 8.4% | 8.0% | -8.5% |