WASHINGTON – The value of new factory orders fell by 0.8% in May, larger than the 0.6% decline expected, as nondurable goods orders fell 0.8%, but durable goods orders were revised up to a 0.8% drop, data released by the Commerce Department Wednesday morning showed.
Petroleum and coal products shipments fell by 3.2% in May, leading the decrease in nondurables orders. Nondurables shipments are equivalent to orders in this report.
Total factory orders excluding transportation fell 0.3% in May, while durable goods orders excluding transportation were up 0.3%, revised up from the 0.1% increase in the advance estimate.
Transportation orders fell 3.0% in May based on Wednesday's data, revised up from the 3.4% decline in the advance estimate. Nondefense aircraft orders fell by 11.6% in May and defense aircraft orders were down 30.8%. Motor vehicles orders rose 0.1% in May, while orders for ships and boats fell by 6.5%. The unpublished transportation components rose 2.4% in the month, based on an MNI calculation.
Nondefense capital goods new orders fell 2.1%, but were up 0.2% when a 22.6% drop in the civilian aircraft category is excluded.
Overall factory shipments were up 0.1% in the month due to a 1.0% jump in durable goods shipments that offset the 0.8% in nondurables shipments. Nondefense capital goods shipments rose 0.7% and were up 0.1% excluding the civilian aircraft component.
Factory inventories were down 0.1% in the month, compared with the 0.1% gain for shipments, but the inventory-to-shipments ratio held steady at 1.38.
The Commerce Department's advance report on inventories showed a 0.3% gain for wholesale inventories and a 0.6% rise for retail inventories. While these data are eligible for revision, the levels as they stand now, combined with Wednesday's factory inventory data, would result in a 0.3% increase in May business inventories when that report is released on July 14, an MNI calculation showed. The revised wholesale data for May will be released on July 11 and could alter this projection.
