The Commerce Department released a report on Thursday indicating an unexpected, slight decline in new orders for U.S. manufactured goods in August. Factory orders fell by 0.2% during the month, following a slightly downwardly revised increase of 4.9% in July. Economists had anticipated a 0.2% rise, contrasting with the initially reported 5.0% spike for July.
The decrease in factory orders was primarily attributed to a 0.5% drop in orders for non-durable goods, which offset a minor increase in durable goods orders. Additionally, shipments of manufactured goods declined by 0.5% in August, after rising by 0.8% in the previous month.
In contrast, inventories of manufactured goods experienced a modest increase of 0.1% in August, maintaining a nearly unchanged level from July. This slight rise in inventories, combined with a decrease in shipments, led to a marginal increase in the inventories-to-shipments ratio, moving from 1.45 in July to 1.46 in August.
