August Factory Orders Hit Skid Row

U.S. Factory Orders fell by 5.2% in August. The report is down from a reading of a 2.8% gain originally reported in factory orders in July, but the Bloomberg consensus reading was looking for an even worse reading of -6.0% in today’s economic release. That 2.*% gain in July was revised lower to a gain of 2.6%.

Factory orders are often volatile, but they rarely move the markets. Part of the reason is that the data is more than a month old. Another part is that this is just one facet of the economy and it is no secret that America’s factory base is (needless to say) not quite what it used to be. America is now a services economy, including natural resources of course.

Bloomberg describes this as follows:

Factory orders represent the dollar level of new orders for both durable and nondurable goods. This report gives more complete information than the advance durable goods report which is released one or two weeks earlier in the month.

JON C. OGG