US Durable Goods Orders Unexpectedly Soar In May

Amid an ugly slew of manufacturing survey data – from national PMI/ISM to regional Feds – it should be no surprise that analysts expected US Durable Goods Orders to drop 0.9% MoM in May.

However, as is the way nowadays, durable goods orders preliminary print jumped a strong 1.7% MoM, with April upwardly revised to +1.2% MoM…

Source: Bloomberg

That is the 3rd straight month of MoM growth and has pushed the YoY growth in durable goods orders to 7.3% – the biggest since Oct ’22.

Ex-transportation, orders grew 0.6% MoM (smashing expectations of being unchanged).

Additionally, the value of core capital goods orders, a proxy for investment in equipment that excludes aircraft and military hardware, increased 0.7% last month (vs +0.1% MoM exp) after a downwardly revised 0.6% gain in April (from +1.3% MoM).

This is not the bad news that The Fed was hoping for to maintain its pause.