News

New orders for manufactured goods declined 1.3% in July, following a 4.8% drop in June. On the other hand, new orders for manufactured goods grew 3.5% over the year. When excluding transportation, new orders inched up 0.6% over the month and 0.7% year-over-year in July. Orders for durable goods decreased 2.8%, following a 9.4% dive in June. Year to date, durable goods orders are up 7.3%. Nondurable goods orders ticked up 0.3% in July after rising 0.4% in June. Nondurable goods orders are down 0.1% over the year.

New orders for nondefense aircraft and parts, which have been incredibly volatile in recent months, led the decrease in durable goods orders, plunging 32.7%, following June’s 52.7% plummet. In July, the largest monthly increase occurred in defense aircraft and parts, which jumped 10.2%, after rising 4.3% the prior month. The largest over-the-year changes also occurred in nondefense aircraft and parts (up 139.2%) and mining, oil field and gas field machinery (down 8.3%).

Factory shipments increased 0.9% in July, after rising 0.6% in June. Shipments over the year rose 1.2%. Shipments excluding transportation advanced 0.6% in July, following a 0.5% gain the previous month. Shipments for durable goods improved 1.5% in July, following a 0.7% increase in June, and are up 2.5% year to date. Meanwhile, nondurable goods shipments ticked up 0.3% after rising 0.4% the prior month but are down 0.1% year to date.

Unfilled orders for all manufacturing industries stayed the same in July, after increasing 0.9% in June. Unfilled orders over the year jumped 7.1%. Inventories grew 0.3%, after inching up 0.2% the prior month. Inventories increased 1.5% year-over-year. The inventories-to-shipments ratio edged down to 1.56 from 1.57 in June. The unfilled orders-to-shipments ratio for durable goods decreased to 6.87 from 7.01 in June.