US: April durable goods orders decreased by 1.7%

The US Census Bureau announced the April advance report on manufacturers’ shipments, inventories and orders and the key highlights could be found below:

   •  New orders for manufactured durable goods in April decreased $4.2 billion or 1.7% to $248.5 billion. 
   •  Excluding transportation, new orders increased 0.9%. 
   •  Excluding defense, new orders decreased 1.9%. 
   •  Transportation equipment, also down following two consecutive monthly increases, drove the decrease, $5.6 billion or 6.1% to $87.1 billion.