May Factory Orders +1.2%; Ex-Transportation +0.8%

New factory orders for manufactured goods climbed 1.2% in May, the Commerce Department said Thursday.

The factory order increase, to $347.850 billion, was larger than the 0.8% increase projected by Thomson Reuters and came after a revised 0.5% increase to $343.760 billion in April, originally reported as a 0.7% rise.

Excluding transportation, the level of all new manufacturing orders grew 0.8% to about $305.5 billion in May, following a 0.2% slip in April to $303.0 billion.

Excluding military orders, new orders rose 1.0% to $332.8 billion, following a 0.1% decrease to $329.5 billion last month. New orders for durable goods jumped 1.8% to $163.4 billion in May, while orders for nondurable goods were up 0.7% to $184.5 billion in the month.

Inventories were down 0.6% to $513.3 billion, while the inventory-to-shipment ratio remained unchanged at 1.45.

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