US durable goods orders rise as expected in March, details weaker

Orders in the U.S. for goods made to last more than three years rose by slightly more than expected last month.

Yet the details of the report were noticeably weaker.

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, in seasonally adjusted terms durable goods orders grew at a month-on-month pace of 2.6% in March (consensus: 2.5%).

However, the prior month's gains was revised lower, from a preliminary print of 1.4% to 0.7%.

Furthermore, the lion's shares of March's increased was the result of a 31% jump in orders for Boeing aircraft.

Indeed, excluding the entire transportation sector, then total orders were up by only 0.2% over the month in March and by 0.1% in February.

Orders for capital goods excluding civilian aircraft and defence, which are considered a good gauge of underlying trends in investment, were ahead by just 0.2%.

Commenting on the latest figures, Bernard Yaros, Lead U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, told clients: "If our real-time tracker of real equipment spending is correct, it would mark the sharpest decline since Q3 2021 and the third quarterly drop in a row.

"We still look for real equipment spending to record subdued growth this year and accelerate meaningfully in 2025."