New orders in the manufacturing sector slipped 0.2% (-2.3% y/y) following a little-revised 3.5% December decline. The fall was the sixth in as many months and roughly matched expectations in the Action Economics Forecast Survey for a 0.3% slip.

Durable goods orders increased 2.8% last month and were up 5.5% y/y. The gain was unrevised from the advance durable goods figure. Transportation orders jumped 9.7% (8.3% y/y) as nondefense aircraft orders surged. Machinery orders gained 1.4% (-2.4% y/y) and computers & electronic equipment orders improved 1.7% (6.1% y/y). Electrical equipment bookings, however, dropped 3.8% (+0.5% y/y). Orders for nondurable goods (which equal shipments) declined 3.1% (-9.1% y/y) as the value of petroleum shipments fell 11.7% (-36.7% y/y) due to lower prices. Basic chemical shipments declined 1.3% (-3.1% y/y). Apparel shipments fell 2.1% (+15.1% y/y) and food product shipments slipped 0.2% (+3.9% y/y). Durable goods shipments declined 1.0% (+5.7% y/y) led by a 1.5% fall (3.5% y/y) in machinery shipments. Electrical equipment & appliance shipments were off 0.7% (+4.2% y/y).

Unfilled orders declined 0.2% (+9.8% y/y) while backlogs excluding the transportation sector slipped 0.1% (+5.9% y/y). Machinery backlogs declined 0.3% (+5.3% y/y) and unfilled orders for transportation equipment also fell 0.3% (+12.2% y/y). Order backlogs of computers & electronic products gained 0.5% (7.6% y/y) while unfilled orders of furniture edged 0.1% higher (10.7% y/y).

Inventories were off 0.4% (+2.0% y/y) following a like decline in December. Inventories excluding the transportation sector fell 0.6% (+0.3% y/y). Nondurable goods inventories led the decline with a 1.7% fall (-4.3% y/y) that reflected an 10.2% drop (-19.2% y/y) in petroleum inventories. Nondurable inventories excluding oil slipped 0.1% (+1.3% y/y). Basic chemical inventories fell 0.6% (-0.1% y/y) but apparel inventories gained 1.7% (26.7% y/y). Textile mill inventories edged 0.4% lower (+1.2% y/y) and paper products inventories gained 0.5% (3.0% y/y).

The factory sector figures are available in Haver's USECON database.