WASHINGTON -- The value of new factory orders rose by 1.2% in August, rising slightly higher than the expected +0.9% by analysts from an MNI survey.
Nondurable goods orders rose 0.4%, but durable goods orders were revised up to a 2.0% increase, data released by the Commerce Department Thursday morning showed.
Petroleum and coal products shipments rose by 2.2% in August, leading the increase in nondurables orders. Nondurables shipments are equivalent to orders in this report.
Total factory orders excluding transportation rose 0.4% in August, while durable goods orders excluding transportation were up 0.5%, revised up from the 0.2% increase in the advance estimate.
The August transportation orders saw a rise of 5.1% based on Thursday's data, up slightly from the 4.9% from the advance estimate from the durables report released September 27. Nondefense aircraft orders rose by 44.8% in August and defense aircraft orders were down 24.3%. Motor vehicles orders rose 0.7% in August, while orders for ships and boats fell by 2.3%.
Nondefense capital goods new orders rose by 4.9%, but were up only 1.1% when a 72.3% increase in the civilian aircraft capital goods category is excluded.
Overall factory shipments were up 0.5% in the month due to a 0.5% rise in durable goods shipments and a 0.4% increase in nondurables shipments. Shipments for nondefense capital goods fell 1.1% and were up 1.1% excluding aircraft component.
Factory inventories were up 0.4% in the month, compared with the 0.5% increase in shipments, making the inventory-to-shipments ratio to remain at 1.38.
The Commerce Department's advance report on inventories showed a 1.0% gain for wholesale inventories and a 0.7% gain 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 0.7% increase in August business inventories when that report is released on October 13, an MNI calculation showed. The revised wholesale data for August will be released on October 6 and could alter this projection.
