Recent Updates
- US: Wholesale Trade (Feb), Producer Prices (Mar)
- US: Producer Price Indexes by Commodity Detail (Mar)
- US: Producer Price Indexes by Industry Detail (Mar)
- Canada: Investment in Building Construction (Feb), Labor Force Survey (Mar)
- more updates...
Economy in Brief
U.S. Wholesale Inventories Post Strong February Gain; Sales Fall
Wholesale inventories increased 0.6% (2.0% y/y) during February...
U.S. Initial Unemployment Insurance Claims Unexpectedly Increase
Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose to 744,000 during the week ended April 3...
Total PMIs Gain Traction in March
The PMI readings for March show improvement again...
U.S. Consumer Credit Outstanding Bounces Back in February
Consumer credit outstanding surged $27.6 billion during February...
U.S. Trade Deficit Widens to Record during February
The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services widened to $71.1 during February...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller August 4, 2015
New orders in the manufacturing sector increased 1.8% during June (-6.2% y/y) following a 1.1% May decline. The rise roughly matched expectations in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Durable goods orders rose 3.4% (-3.0% y/y) following 2.3% decline. These figures were unchanged from the advance release. A roughly two-thirds increase in nondefense aircraft bookings (11.2% y/y) powered the rise. Orders excluding the transportation sector altogether rose 0.5% (-6.2% y/y) after a 0.1% dip. Nondurable goods orders (which equal shipments) improved 0.4% (-8.0% y/y) following no change. Petroleum refinery shipments gained 1.7% (-28.4% y/y) after a 2.4% increase. Food products shipments eased (-0.9% y/y) for the sixth straight month. Apparel shipments gained 0.4% (0.3% y/y) following a 0.9% jump and paper product shipments fell 0.9% (-2.1% y/y) after a 1.1% decline. Basic chemical shipments improved 0.4% (-0.9% y/y) and reversed the May decline. Shipments of durable goods improved 0.5% (3.5% y/y) after they declined during four of the prior five months.
Unfilled orders remained unchanged (4.6% y/y), also following declines in four of the prior five months. Backlogs excluding the transportation sector eased 0.1% (0.6% y/y). Unfilled orders of nondefense aircraft rose 0.5% (11.3% y/y).
Inventories in the factory sector rose 0.6% (-0.1% y/y) following a 0.1% uptick. Durable goods inventories increased 0.6% (4.0% y/y). Computes & electronic product inventories gained 0.7% (4.7% y/y) following a 0.3% easing. Nondurable goods inventories gained 0.4% (-5.9% y/y) as petroleum refinery inventories rose 2.4% (-28.7% y/y). Food product inventories fell 0.4% (-1.5% y/y) and reversed May's rise. Apparel inventories rose 0.2% (13.7% y/y) after 1-to-2 percent increases in the prior two months. Paper product inventories gained 0.5% (2.4% y/y). Basic chemical inventories improved 0.1% (-2.8% y/y) following seven consecutive months of decline.
The factory sector figures are available in Haver's USECON database. The expectations figure from the Action Economics Forecast Survey is available in AS1REPNA.
Factory Sector- NAICS Classification (%) | Jun | May | Apr | Y/Y | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
New Orders | 1.8 | -1.1 | -0.7 | -6.2 | 3.4 | 2.2 | 4.4 |
Shipments | 0.5 | -0.2 | -0.0 | -3.9 | 2.5 | 2.1 | 4.4 |
Unfilled Orders | 0.0 | -0.5 | -0.2 | 4.6s | 11.4 | 6.4 | 7.5 |
Inventories | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0.2 | -0.1 | 2.4 | 1.7 | 3.8 |