U.S. durable goods orders recovered strongly in March. On a sequential basis, durable goods orders rose 2.7 percent, as compared with consensus expectations of a rise of 0.8 percent. The miss relative to expectations came from the solid rise in core capital goods orders – a measure of business equipment demand – which rose 1.3 percent sequentially as compared with consensus expectations of 0.2 percent. The other major driver of overall orders was the volatile nondefense aircraft category, which recovered strongly, as was expected. In all, today’s report signals some stabilization in demand for durable goods after the extended government shutdown earlier in the year affected activity.
Delving into details, nondefense aircraft orders rose 31.2 percent sequentially, more than reversing the fall in February. Orders for most other categories, including computers, electronics, machinery and autos, also increased on the month.
Core capital goods orders rose 2.1 percent on a three-month saar basis, after a string of negative readings for the prior months. Data on durable goods shipments, which factor directly into the NIPA estimates, were slightly weaker than expected for March. Nevertheless, with shipments data for February revised upwards, the momentum for the first quarter in fact rebounded a bit.
“The gap between core capital goods orders and shipments closed in March, with orders rising slightly above shipments for the first time in several months. This bodes well for shipments in coming months”, noted Barclays in a research report.
At 16:00 GMT the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of US Dollar was highly bullish at 103.691 more details on FxWirePro's Currency Strength Index, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex
