• Orders increase paced by transportation.

• Increased shipments largely reflect higher oil prices.

• Order backlogs and inventories continue to rise.

New orders for manufactured goods jumped 1.7% (30.4% y/y) during May following a 0.1% dip in April, revised from -0.6%. It was the largest increase since January. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected a 1.5% rise. The 1.4% gain in March was unrevised.

Durable goods orders surged 2.3% following a 0.7% April drop, revised from -1.3%. The May increase was unrevised from the advance report. Transportation sector orders rebounded 7.7% (106.6% y/y) following two months of sharp decline. Electrical equipment orders rose 1.3% (23.9% y/y) but machinery orders slipped marginally (+24.3% y/y).

Nondurable goods orders, which equal shipments, improved 1.0% (20.4% y/y) in May after rising 0.5% in April. Shipments from petroleum refineries surged 2.8% (125.9% y/y). Basic chemical shipments rose 1.0% (12.7% y/y) but apparel shipments eased 0.1% (+10.0% y/y). Textile product shipments rose 0.9% (15.9% y/y). Shipments of paper products edged 0.1% higher (8.9% y/y).

Shipments of durable goods rose 0.4% (31.6% y/y) in May after little change in April. Transportation equipment shipments fell 0.4% (+68.9% y/y) while shipments of furniture eased 0.2% (8.2% y/y). Electrical equipment shipments edged 0.1% higher (20.8% y/y) and computer & electronic product shipments fell 0.3% (+8.7% y/y).

Inventories of manufactured products rose 0.9% (4.8% y/y) in May following a 0.5% April gain. Transportation equipment inventories rose 0.1% (4.4% y/y) and excluding transportation inventories rose 1.1% (4.9% y/y). Durable goods inventories increased 0.7% (3.4% y/y) for a second straight month. Nondurable goods inventories rose 1.2% (7.1% y/y) as petroleum inventories increased 6.5% (50.1% y/y). Basic chemical inventories rose 0.5% (5.4% y/y) and apparel inventories rose 0.9% (-2.1% y/y).

The value of unfilled orders rose 0.8% (-1.4% y/y) in May after a 0.4% April gain. Unfilled orders of durable goods rose 1.8% (-1.4% y/y). In the transportation sector, they rose 0.4% (-6.9% y/y) and excluding transportation, backlogs jumped 1.6% (11.9% y/y). Electrical equipment order backlogs rose 1.7% (14.6% y/y).

The factory sector data are available in USECON database.