Recent Updates
- ** New Zealand's Jobs Online Report has been delayed by the source, MBIE, until 6:00 PM ET 4/26.**
- UK: RICS Commercial Market Survey (Q1) Mortgage and Consumer Lending, Average Precipitation (Mar)
- Markit PMI: Manufacturing Survey - Austria (Apr)
- Germany: GfK Consumer Climate Survey, BA-X Job Index (Apr)
- Spain: Mortgage Market, Labor Force Survey (Q1)
- Kyrgyz Republic: Foreign Trade (Feb), State Budget, Foreign Reserves (Mar); Russia: Buildings Put in Place (Q1); Bulgaria:
- more updates...
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 April 4, 2016
New orders in the manufacturing sector declined 1.7% during February (+0.1% y/y) and reversed the prior month's 1.2% increase. The decline reflected a little-revised 3.0% drop in durable goods orders. These orders were pulled lower by a 6.2% decline in transportation sector bookings as well a 3.6% drop in orders for electrical equipment. Nondurable goods orders (which equal shipments), eased 0.4% (-7.4% y/y), the eight decline in as many months. A 2.1% decline in orders to petroleum refineries led the decline as prices fell. Textile product orders also were off 1.1% (+5.3% y/y) while basic chemical orders remained little changed (+4.4% y/y). Shipments of durable goods declined 1.0% as machinery orders were off 3.1% (-0.6% y/y), but orders for computers & electronic products increased 1.1% (8.4% y/y).
Unfilled orders in the factory sector eased 0.3% (-1.6% y/y) after a 0.1% up tick. Unfilled orders of transportation equipment fell 0.6% (-1.7% y/y). Excluding the transportation sector, order backlogs gained 0.2% (-1.3% y/y) led by a 1.3% jump (-0.2% y/y) in electrical equipment, appliances & components.
Inventories in the factory sector fell 0.4% (-2.5% y/y). Nondurable goods inventories declined 0.5% (-3.8% y/y), led lower by a 5.5% decline (-28.6% y/y) in the value of petroleum inventories. The value of basic chemical inventories was little-changed (-0.8% y/y) and apparel inventories increased 0.6% (10.8% y/y). Durable goods inventories eased -0.3% (-1.7% y/y), and have been falling steadily for nearly a year.
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 (%) | Feb | Jan | Dec | Y/Y | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
New Orders | -1.7 | 1.2 | -2.9 | 0.1 | -6.6 | 3.5 | 2.0 |
Shipments | -0.7 | -0.2 | -1.4 | -0.1 | -4.3 | 2.6 | 1.9 |
Unfilled Orders | -0.3 | 0.1 | -0.5 | -1.6 | -1.9 | 11.5 | 6.5 |
Inventories | -0.4 | -0.5 | -0.2 | -2.5 | -1.9 | 2.4 | 1.7 |