US manufactured goods orders jump again in June

WASHINGTON  -Orders of big-ticket manufactured items soared past analysts’ expectations to grow by almost five percent in June, fueled once more by buoyant transportation equipment orders, according to US government data released Thursday.

The surge in new orders in June is the fourth consecutive month of increases, indicating strong demand for durable goods despite an aggressive campaign of interest rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve to tame inflation.

On Wednesday, the Fed raised interest rates for an 11th time, and left open the option for more if inflation proved stubborn to bring down to its long-term target of two percent.

Manufactured durable goods orders rose by 4.7 percent in June from a month earlier to $302.5 billion, the Commerce Department announced in a statement.

The increase was more than triple the median expectation of a a 1.5 percent rise in orders in a MarketWatch survey of economists.

This was largely due to a jump in new orders of transportation equipment, which rose by 12.1 percent, the Commerce Department said.

Durable goods orders increased by a revised two percent in May on the back of higher transportation equipment orders.

Excluding transportation, new orders only increased 0.6 percent, while new orders excluding defense orders rose by 6.2 percent, according to the Commerce Department.