The U.S. Department of Commerce has reported that durable goods orders were rather durable in July. New orders rose by 2.0%, much better than the -0.4% expected by Bloomberg and better than the 0.1% gain expected by the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones. Also, the June report was revised to a gain of 4.1% from a preliminary report of a gain of 3.4%.

In terms of real world dollars, that 2% gain was up $4.6 billion to $241.1 billion. Transportation equipment was up for the second straight month, up $3.8 billion to $83.2 billion in July.

Unfilled orders for manufactured durable goods in July rose by $2.3 billion (or 0.2%) to $1.1975 trillion. This followed a virtually unchanged June increase.

Excluding transportation, the gain was a more moderate 0.6% in July. Bloomberg had that consensus estimate at 0.4%, and the June report was revised up to 1.0% from a preliminary report of 0.8%.

There is also a core durable goods reading that is measured by new orders for non-defense capital goods, excluding aircraft. This rose for the second straight month, up to 2.2% in July, and that appears to be the biggest single month gain for just over a year.

Inventories of manufactured durable goods in July fell by $0.1 billion to $402.1 billion. Primary metals, down six consecutive months, drove the decrease with a drop of $0.2 billion (-0.5%) to $37.1 billion.

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