U.S. factory orders fall sharply in July

Factory orders in the U.S. dropped sharply in July, reversing the solid growth seen in the prior month. In July, U.S. factory orders declined 3.3 percent on a sequential basis, coming widely in line with consensus expectations and a sharp fall from June’s growth of 3.2 percent.

The durable good side of this report was greatly known already because of the preliminary July data released earlier. Durable goods orders dropped 6.8 percent, as non-defence aircraft orders weighed on transportation orders and led them to decline 19.2 percent. Core durable goods orders grew 0.6 percent after being flat previously.

The new information in the factory orders report released today came from nondurable orders that rose 0.4 percent. Nondurable orders are slightly changed on the year-to data, with July orders slightly above December levels, stated Barclays in a research report. Non-durable inventories also rebounded modestly at 0.1 percent sequentially.

“After rounding, our Q2 GDP tracking estimate remains unchanged at 2.4 percent”, added Barclays.

At 22:00 GMT the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of US Dollar was slightly bearish at -51.6867. For more details on FxWirePro's Currency Strength Index, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex

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