Durable Goods Orders Decline in January
Orders for durable goods declined in January, the Commerce Department reported.
Orders for products meant to last more than three years fell 1%, which followed a 5.3% decline in December.
The smaller decline from January to December show companies are regaining confidence the economy will improve as temperatures rise, encouraging factories to boost production, Bloomberg News reported.
“Much of the weakness is due to the recent bad weather,” Brett Ryan, an economist at Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., told Bloomberg. “The fundamentals are still really positive; household balance sheets are solid,” Ryan said.
Shipments of durable goods declined 0.8% in January after rising 0.3% the previous month. The harsh weather may have prevented factories from making deliveries, Bloomberg reported.
Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected a 1.7% decline in durable orders in January.
Excluding transportation equipment, which often has volatile month-to-month demand, orders increased 1.1%. That represented the most since May, Commerce said. Those orders had declined 1.9% in December.
