US durable goods orders surprised on the upside of expectations in July, rising twice as much as expected and also the previous figure was upwardly revised. On a monthly basis, US durable goods orders jumped by 4.0% M/M and the previous figure was upwardly adjusted from -2.1% M/M to -1.3% M/M. The breakdown shows that strength was led by transportation orders, which rose by 14.6% M/M, but also excluding transportation, orders rose for a third consecutive month, while the consensus was looking for a decline.
The breakdown shows however a mixed picture as only orders for primary metals rose in July (by 10.3% M/M), while orders for computers & electronics (-3.4% M/M), electrical equipment (-1.8% M/M), machinery (-
1.5% M/M) and fabricated metals (-1.0% M/M) dropped in July. Shipments of nondefence capital goods excluding aircraft, which is an important indicator for GDP growth, rose only slightly (by 0.2% M/M). The decent durables figure is an encouraging sign after the bunch of weak confidence data of recent. The details are not as strong as the headline figure, but the “hard data” are holding up relatively well compared to the weakness suggested by the business confidence indicators.