The U.S.
Commerce Department reported on Tuesday that the durable goods orders plunged
6.1 per cent m-o-m in January 2024, following a downwardly revised 0.3 per cent
m-o-m decrease (from unchanged m-o-m) in December 2023. This marked the steepest monthly decline in
durable goods orders since April 2020 (-19.3 per cent).
Economists
had predicted a 4.5 per cent m-o-m decline.
According to
the report, the January tumble was due to declines in orders in 6 of 9 sectors,
led by transportation equipment (-16.2 per cent m-o-m), capital goods (-15.0 per cent m-o-m) and manufacturing (-8.2 per
cent m-o-m).
Meanwhile,
orders for durable goods excluding transportation slipped 0.3 per cent m-o-m in
January, following a downwardly revised 0.1 per cent m-o-m fall (from +0.6 per
cent m-o-m) in the previous month, worse than economists’ forecast of a 0.2
per cent m-o-m advance.
Elsewhere,
orders for non-defence capital goods excluding aircraft, a closely watched
proxy for business spending plans, edged up 0.1 per cent m-o-m last month after
a downwardly revised 0.6 per cent m-o-m fall (from +0.3 per cent m-o-m) in December.
Economists had foreseen a 0.1 per cent
m-o-m uptick in core capital goods orders for January.
On a y-o-y
basis, durable goods orders dropped 0.8 per cent, while orders, excluding
transportation, increased 1.8 per cent.