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New orders for manufactured goods rose 8.2% in May, up five of the past six months and 3.2% over the year. When excluding transportation, new orders inched up just 0.2%. Orders for durable goods leaped 16.4%, following a 6.6% decrease in April. Year to date, durable goods orders are up 6.9%. Nondurable goods orders ticked up 0.1% in May after declining 1.0% in April. Nondurable goods orders are down 0.3% over the year.

New orders for nondefense aircraft and parts, which have been incredibly volatile in recent months, led the increase in durable goods, climbing 230.8%, following April’s 51.6% dive. In May, the largest monthly decrease occurred in mining, oil field, and gas field machinery, which fell 11.5%, after jumping 21.0% the month prior. The largest over-the-year changes also occurred in nondefense aircraft and parts (up 163.6%) and defense search and navigation equipment (down 8.2%).

Factory shipments increased 0.1% in May, after slipping 0.3% in April. Shipments over the year rose 0.7%. Shipments excluding transportation also ticked up 0.1% in May, following a 0.7% decrease the previous month. Shipments for durable goods improved 0.2% in May, following a 0.3% increase in April, and are up 1.8% year to date. Meanwhile, nondurable goods shipments recovered just 0.1% from the prior month’s 1.0% decline and are down 0.3% year to date.

Unfilled orders for all manufacturing industries rose 3.4% in May, after being flat in April. Inventories ticked up 0.1%, the same as four of the past five months, and the inventories-to-shipments ratio remained the same at 1.58. The unfilled orders-to-shipments ratio for durable goods increased to 6.98 from 6.77 in April.