US orders for durable goods rose 2% in July

Orders for long-lasting manufactured goods from US factories rose 2 percent in July after a 4.1 percent gain in June.

According to data from the Commerce Department, demand for non-military equipment excluding planes, called core capital goods orders, increased 2.2 percent – the biggest rise since June 2014. Capital goods are goods used to create products, provide services, or improve productivity.

The surge was driven by an increase in orders for transportation equipment, which rose 4.7 in July after surging 10.7 percent the month before.

Orders for motor vehicles and parts climbed 4.0 percent.

 

Excluding transportation goods durable goods orders in July climbed 0.60 percent.

The result beat what economists had forecast of a 0.60 percent decrease in orders for July.

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The Commerce Department is going to release a separate report next week on factory orders in the month of July with information on orders for durable and non-durable goods.

Business investment down 3.8% from a year earlier

However, it should be noted that business investment is down 3.8% from a year earlier. The decline is because of a stronger dollar, making US exports harder to sell in a global economy that hasn’t performed as well as expected.

According to a report by MarketWatch, Cliff Waldman, director of economic studies at the MAPI Foundation, a trade-group affiliated research outlet, said:

“The turmoil and confusion in China, weakness in a number of advanced and developing economies, and the recent disruption in global financial markets are all likely to negatively impact the confidence that is essential for positive activity in investment and big-ticket spending,”