New orders for durable goods dipped 0.5% during April following a revised 5.1% March jump, earlier reported as 4.0%. A 2.5% decline (-5.1% y/y) in transportation sector orders led the total lower as it reflected a 6.1% drop in aircraft & parts bookings. Defense aircraft orders fell 12.8% (-4.5% y/y) after more than doubling in March. Nondefense aircraft orders declined 4.0% (+3.3% y/y) following a 40.7% surge. Motor vehicle & parts orders were off 0.3% (+10.9% y/y). Durable goods orders excluding the transportation sector improved 0.5% (-0.9% y/y), roughly as they did the prior month. Expectations were for a 0.6% dip in orders for total durable goods in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. During the last ten years, there has been an 88% correlation between the y/y change in orders and the change in real GDP.

Machinery orders jumped 3.1% (-5.5% y/y) following two months of decline. Orders for both fabricated & primary metals also recovered strongly following several months of shortfall. These gains were offset, however, by a 1.5% decline (-3.0% y/y) in orders for electrical equipment & appliances. Orders for computers & electronic products also fell 3.6% (+3.5% y/y) after a 7.7% jump.

Nondefense capital goods orders improved 0.3% (-0.8% y/y) following an upwardly revised 7.2% jump. Orders excluding the notably volatile aircraft sector gained 1.0% (-1.4% y/y) after a 1.5% rise.

Shipments of durable goods slipped 0.1% (+3.4% y/y) following a 1.5% gain. Shipments excluding transportation edged 0.1% higher (0.6% y/y) after a 0.2% improvement. Unfilled orders were unchanged (+7.1% y/y) for a second consecutive month. Backlogs less the transportation sector dipped 0.2% (+3.4% y/y), down for the third straight month. Inventories of durable goods gained 0.2% (5.0% y/y) following no change, and excluding transportation they rose 0.1% (3.8% y/y) for a second straight month.

The durable goods figures are available in Haver's USECON database. The Action Economics consensus forecast figure is in the AS1REPNA database.