The value of new factory orders rose by 3% in June, right on the target expectation by analysts from an MNI survey. Nondurable goods orders fell 0.3%, but durable goods orders were revised slightly down to a still strong 6.4% rise, data released by the Commerce Department Thursday morning showed.
Petroleum and coal products shipments fell by 2.7% in June, leading the decrease in nondurables orders. Nondurables shipments are equivalent to orders in this report.
Total factory orders excluding transportation fell 0.2% in June, while durable goods orders excluding transportation were up 0.1%, revised down from the 0.2% increase in the advance estimate.
Transportation orders rose 19% in June based on Thursday's data, unrevised from the advance estimate. Nondefense aircraft orders rose by 131.1% in June and defense aircraft orders were down 0.3%. Motor vehicles orders rose 0.1% in June, while orders for ships and boats fell by 3.4%.
Nondefense capital goods new orders rose 21.1%, but were flat when a 228.7% rise in the civilian aircraft category is excluded.
Overall factory shipments were down 0.2% in the month due to a flat durable goods shipments and a 0.3% decline in nondurables shipments. Nondefense capital goods shipments rose 0.4% and were up 0.1% excluding the civilian aircraft component.
Factory inventories were up 0.2% in the month, compared with the 0.2% decline in shipments, shifting the inventory-to-shipments ratio to rise to 1.38.
The Commerce Department's advance report on inventories showed a 0.6% gain for wholesale inventories and a 0.6% rise for retail inventories. While these data are eligible for revision, the levels as they stand now, combined with Thursday's factory inventory data, would result in a 0.4% increase in June business inventories when that report is released on August 15, an MNI calculation showed. The revised wholesale data for June will be released on August 9 and could alter this projection.
