WASHINGTON – The value of new factory orders rose by 1.4% in September, rising slightly higher than the expected 1.2% rise by analysts from an MNI survey.
Nondurable goods orders rose 0.8%, but durable goods orders were revised down to a 2.0% increase from a 2.2% increase, data released by the Commerce Department Friday morning showed.
Petroleum and coal products shipments rose by 5.0% in September, leading the increase in nondurables orders. Nondurables shipments are equivalent to orders in this report.
Total factory orders excluding transportation rose 0.7% in September, while durable goods orders excluding transportation were up 0.7%, unrevised from the 0.7% increase in the advance estimate.
Transportation orders for September rose 4.7% based on Friday's data, down slightly from the 5.1% gain in the advance estimate from the durables report released October 25. Nondefense aircraft orders rose by 30.8% in September and defense aircraft orders were up 2.5%. Motor vehicles orders rose 0.1% in September, while orders for ships and boats rose by 33.2%.
Nondefense capital goods new orders saw a 6.4% increase, but were up only 1.7% when a 62.3% increase in the civilian aircraft capital goods category is excluded.
Overall factory shipments were up 0.8% in the month due to a 0.9% rise in durable goods shipments and a 0.8% increase in nondurables shipments. Shipments for nondefense capital goods rose 2.5% and were up 0.9% excluding aircraft component.
Factory inventories were up 0.7% in the month, compared with the 0.8% increase in shipments, making the inventory-to-shipments ratio stay at 1.38.
The Commerce Department's advance report on inventories showed a 0.3% increase for wholesale inventories and a 1.0% decline for retail inventories. While these data are eligible for revision, the levels as they stand now, combined with Friday's factory inventory data, would result in a flat reading in September for business inventories when that report is released on November 15, an MNI calculation showed. The revised wholesale data for September will be released on November 9 and could alter this projection.
