(Reuters) – New orders for U.S.-manufactured goods increased for a third straight month in April, boosted by demand for transportation equipment.
Factory orders rose 0.7%, matching the revised pace in March, the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau said on Tuesday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a 0.6% increase from March. Transportation equipment orders rose by 1.1%, while excluding transportation, orders rose 0.7% in April.
Manufacturing, which accounts for 10.4% of the U.S. economy, remains constrained by 525 basis points worth of interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve since March 2022. A survey from the Institute for Supply Management on Monday showed its manufacturing PMI fell for a second straight month in May and has been in contraction for 18 of the last 19 months.
(Reporting by Dan Burns; Editing by Paul Simao and Chizu Nomiyama)
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