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Friday, September 25, 2009

Durable Goods Orders off 2.4% in August

by Calculated Risk on 9/25/2009 08:33:00 AM

From the Census Bureau:

New orders for manufactured durable goods in August decreased $4.0 billion or 2.4 percent to $164.4 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau announced today. This was the second decrease in the last three months. This followed a 4.8 percent July increase. Excluding transportation, new orders were down slightly.

Transportation equipment, also down two of the last three months, had the largest decrease, $4.0 billion or 9.3 percent to $39.5 billion. This was led by nondefense aircraft and parts, which decreased $3.7 billion.
So excluding civilian aircraft, durable goods orders were only down slightly.

The manufacturers continue to work down their unfilled orders and inventory:
Unfilled Orders
Unfilled orders for manufactured durable goods in August, down eleven consecutive months, decreased $2.8 billion or 0.4 percent to $737.1 billion. This was the longest streak of consecutive monthly decreases since the series was first published on a NAICS basis in 1992 ...

Inventories
Inventories of manufactured durable goods in August, down eight consecutive months, decreased $4.2 billion or 1.3 percent to $308.9 billion. This followed a 1.1 percent July decrease.
emphasis added