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Economy in Brief
Japan Shows Very Moderate Growth As Trade War Clouds Gather
Japan’s sector indexes showed a solid gain in February...
U.S. Consumer Confidence Unexpectedly Rose in April
The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index rose to 128.7 in April from 127.0 (initially reported as 127.7) in March...
U.S. New Home Sales and Prices Strengthen
Sales of new single-family homes during March increased 4.0% (8.8% y/y) to 694,000 (SAAR)...
U.S. FHFA House Price Index Continues to Strengthen
The FHFA index of U.S. house prices rose 0.6% during February...
U.S. Energy Prices Rise Further
Retail gasoline prices increased to $2.80 per gallon last week (14.3% y/y)...
by Tom Moeller August 5, 2014
New orders to all manufacturers jumped 1.1% (1.5% y/y) in June following a 0.6% decline during May, revised from -0.5%. A 0.6% increase was expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. A 1.7% rebound (-0.6% y/y) in durable goods orders led the total higher. Factory sector orders excluding transportation equipment improved 0.8% (4.9% y/y), the third increase in the last four months. Orders for nondurable goods (which equal shipments) recovered 0.6% (3.5% y/y) but have improved just 0.6% since December. Shipments of plastics & rubber rebounded another 1.0% (4.5% y/y). Shipments from chemical plants improved 0.5% but were off 1.2% y/y. Textile mill shipments gained 0.5% (2.9% y/y) while apparel shipments jumped 2.6% (13.3% y/y).
Unfilled orders jumped 1.0% (6.8% y/y), strong for the fourth consecutive month. Excluding the transportation sector, order backlogs rose 1.2% (6.2% y/y). Backlogs of electrical equipment jumped 2.4% (10.3% y/y) and unfilled orders of furniture gained 1.8% (6.1% y/y). Unfilled orders in the machinery sector jumped 1.9% (12.5% y/y) but backlogs of computers & electronics rose just 0.6% (5.2% y/y).
Inventories in the factory sector improved a lessened 0.3% (4.0% y/y) after a 0.8% May rise. In the durable goods sector, inventories rose 0.4% (5.8% y/y) led by a 0.8% increase (4.8% y/y) in primary metals. Transportation sector inventories also gained 0.8% (10.7% y/y). Amongst nondurable goods industries, inventories ticked 0.1% higher (1.4% y/y), held back by a 0.6% decline in basic chemicals (-0.8% y/y). Apparel inventories offset this decline with a 1.9% rise and they're up by one-quarter over the last twelve months.
The factory sector figures are available in Haver's USECON database.
Factory Sector- NAICS Classification | Jun | May | Apr | Y/Y | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
New Orders | 1.1 | -0.6 | 0.8 | 1.5 | 2.7 | 2.9 | 12.9 |
Shipments | 0.5 | -0.1 | 0.4 | 3.8 | 2.1 | 4.0 | 12.1 |
Inventories | 0.3 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 4.0 | 2.3 | 2.4 | 10.2 |
Unfilled Orders | 1.0 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 6.8 | 7.0 | 3.7 | 10.0 |