While figures released by the Commerce Department on Friday showed a notable increase in new orders for manufactured goods in the month of December, the pace of growth fell short of economist estimates.
The report showed that factory orders rose by 1.1 percent in December following an upwardly revised 2.2 percent increase in November. Economists had expected orders to increase by 1.5 percent compared to the 1.8 percent growth that had been reported for the previous month.
Excluding a 5.4 percent increase in orders for transportation equipment, orders rose by a more modest 0.6 percent in December.
The increase in factory orders was partly due to a jump in orders for durable goods, which rose by 3.0 percent in December following a 4.2 percent increase in November. Orders for non-durable goods edged up by just 0.4 percent.
The report also showed that shipments of manufactured goods increased for the seventh consecutive month, rising by 0.7 percent in December after inching up by 0.2 percent in the previous month.
Inventories of manufactured goods edged up by 0.1 percent in December, increasing for the twenty-sixth time in the last twenty seven months.
With shipments increasing at a faster rate than inventories, the inventories-to-shipments ratio slipped to 1.33 in December from 1.34 in November.
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com