Economic Data and Growth

New orders for manufactured goods increased 2.7% in November, following a 1.2% decline in October. Meanwhile, new orders for manufactured goods grew 3.4% over the year. When excluding transportation, new orders inched up 0.2% over the month and 0.7% year-over-year in November. Orders for durable goods jumped 5.3%, following a 2.1% decrease in October. Year to date, durable goods orders rose 7.3%. Nondurable goods orders stayed the same in November after declining 0.3% in October. Nondurable goods orders edged down 0.3% over the year.

New orders for nondefense aircraft and parts led the increase in durable goods orders, surging 97.6%, following October’s 17.9% drop. In November, the largest monthly decrease occurred in defense search and navigation equipment, which fell 9.7% after increasing 2.5% the prior month. The largest over-the-year changes occurred in nondefense aircraft and parts (up 111.8%) and mining, oil field and gas field machinery (down 6.8%).

Factory shipments declined 0.1% in November, after ticking up 0.1% in October. Shipments over the year rose 1.5%. Shipments excluding transportation increased 0.2% in November, following a 0.1% decrease the previous month. Shipments for durable goods dropped 0.3% in November, following a 0.5% rise in October, and are up 3.3% year to date. Meanwhile, nondurable goods shipments stayed the same after moving down 0.3% the prior month, and are down the same amount year to date.

Unfilled orders for all manufacturing industries increased 1.4% in November, after inching up 0.2% in October. Unfilled orders over the year jumped 9.4%. Inventories rose 1.1% year-over-year. The inventories-to-shipments ratio remained unchanged at 1.56 in November. The unfilled orders-to-shipments ratio for durable goods moved up to 7.04 in November from 6.93 in October.