WASHINGTON: A large jump in aircraft orders sent US orders for durable goods rocketing 22.6 percent in July to a new monthly record, Commerce Department data showed Tuesday.
Civilian aircraft orders led by aircraft manufacturer Boeing's order book quadrupled from June to $70 billion, driving up the overall total of durable goods orders to $300.1 billion, by far the best month ever.
Leaving out the transport sector, durable goods orders fell 0.8 percent in the month, dragged down by a slowdown in orders for electrical equipment, appliances, and components, and by defense industry goods.
Economist Ian Shepherdson of Pantheon Macroeconomics said orders for core capital goods, like machinery, which show investment in production by US industry, fell in July, but looked firm if combined with upwardly revised data from June.
For the May-July period together, he noted, core capital goods spending was rising at an 11.6 percent yearly rate.
And the jump in aircraft orders took the total for all durable goods orders so far this year to 1.70 trillion, a gain of 8.2 percent over the same seven-month period of 2013.
"The underlying trends here are solid," Shepherdson said.
Comments
Comments are closed.