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New orders for U.S. factory goods rose just 0.1% in August, as stronger demand for electrical equipment, appliances and machinery was largely offset by a decline in civilian aircraft orders. The Commerce Department’s Census Bureau reported the increase on Friday, October 2, following a downwardly revised 0.8% rise in July.
The August result matched the 0.1% increase economists had forecast in a Reuters poll. Orders were 6.8% higher than a year earlier, but the small monthly gain reflected sharply different conditions across manufacturing industries. Orders for nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft—a closely watched indicator of business equipment spending—rose 1.6%, according to the report.
Aircraft orders weighed on the headline
Orders for civilian aircraft and parts fell 4.3% in August, restraining the overall factory-goods figure. The Census Bureau’s earlier advance report on durable goods showed nondefense aircraft orders at $18.8 billion, down from $19.7 billion in July. That report recorded a 12% increase in the aircraft category in July, underscoring how month-to-month swings in this sector can affect the headline.
Transportation equipment orders overall declined 0.6% in the advance durable-goods data, to $114.1 billion. Orders for motor vehicles and parts slipped 0.6%, while defense aircraft and parts orders rose 5.9%. The figures illustrate that the weakness was concentrated in some transportation categories rather than spread evenly across the sector.
Machinery and electrical goods gained
Several other industries recorded gains. Machinery orders jumped 1.1% in August, while orders for electrical equipment, appliances and components also rose 1.1%, to about $19.0 billion in the Census Bureau’s durable-goods table. Orders for motor vehicle bodies, parts and trailers increased 0.8, Reuters reported.
Orders for computers and electronic products were unchanged for the month, but stood 14.7% above their level a year earlier, Reuters reported. The Census Bureau’s advance durable-goods release separately showed total new orders excluding transportation up 0.3%, indicating that the weakness in transport did not translate into a decline across other durable-goods categories.
Core equipment measure advances
Nondefense capital goods orders excluding aircraft accelerated 1.6% in August, following a 0.6% increase in July, according to the Census Bureau’s revised figures reported by Reuters. The category is watched as an indicator of businesses’ plans to purchase equipment because it removes volatile aircraft orders from the calculation.
Shipments of those core capital goods, which feed into the equipment-investment component of gross domestic product, rose 0.5% in August. That was slightly below the 0.6% increase estimated in the advance report. Orders indicate demand placed with manufacturers, while shipments track goods sent out; the two measures therefore provide different information about the timing of business activity.
Economic context and data limitations
Reuters reported that investment in artificial-intelligence infrastructure and efforts by businesses to rebuild inventories have been supporting manufacturing demand. It also cited concerns among economists about supply-chain disruption, higher energy costs and tariffs. Those pressures are risks described in the reporting, not factors quantified by the August orders figures themselves.
The Census Bureau’s September 25 advance report covered durable goods, while its full Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories and Orders report was scheduled for October 2. The agency notes that manufacturing estimates can be revised as additional survey responses arrive. The reported August increase is therefore a monthly estimate, not a final measure of production or factory output; the orders release alone does not establish how the cited risks will affect subsequent months.
