WASHINGTON – New orders for U.S. manufactured goods decreased a seasonally adjusted 0.5 percent in May to $416.9 billion, after rising a revised 0.5 percent in April, according to the preliminary report issued today by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The dip ended a three-month string of increases, but was less sharp than the 1.2-percent decline predicted in a Bloomberg News survey of 27 economists.
New orders for manufactured durable goods fell 2.4 percent to $213.7 billion in May after rising 1.0 percent in April, the bureau said, revising its original report last Wednesday of a 2.8 percent decline. New orders for manufactured nondurable goods rose 1.6 percent to $203.2 billion.
Unfilled orders rose a revised 0.9 percent to $725.7 billion, exceeding the 0.8-percent increase originally reported but still falling short of April’s 1.9-percent gain. The May level was the highest since the series began in 1962, the bureau said.
Inventories of durable goods rose 0.1 percent – half the originally reported gain – to $312.8 billion. The 15th consecutive monthly gain, it followed an increase of 0.4 percent in April. Inventories of nondurable manufactured goods rose 0.7 percent, in their third straight increase, to $202.2 billion.
“We would expect to see a pickup in business spending,” Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at Global Insight Inc. in Lexington, Mass., told Bloomberg. “Manufacturers seem to have gotten through the soft patch with more optimism, and inventories are in good shape, so it’s likely they’ll be more willing to spend in the [year’s] second half.”
Additional information, including the Advance Report on Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories and Orders (M3), is available from the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of the Census, Manufacturing and Construction Division, at www.census.gov/m3.
