US durable goods pull back following May's surge

(Sharecast News) - US durable goods orders fell sharply in June, according to data out on Friday from the Census Bureau, partly reversing the strongest monthly growth in 11 years in May. Orders received by manufacturers of goods designed to last at least three years dropped 9.3% last month to $311.8bn, registering the biggest monthly decline in April 2020.

However, this wasn't as bad as the 10.8% fall predicted by analysts after the 16.5% surge in orders in May - the steepest rate of growth since July 2014 - which followed a sharp drop in April as a result of purchasing managers frontloading orders before trade tariffs kicked in.

According to the Census Bureau, new orders for transportation equipment slumped 22.4% over the month to $113bn. When excluding these, durable goods orders were actually up 0.2%, following 0.6% growth the previous month.

Shipments of manufactured durable goods were up for the seventh straight month, rising 0.5% to $302.5bn, following a 0.2% increase in May.