US durable goods orders defy expectations in August: What to know

In a major update, US durable goods orders remained unchanged in August but the results outpaced market expectations and came in higher than economists had expected.

According to the Census Bureau, US durable goods orders were broadly flat holding at $338.6bn after two consecutive monthly increases and defying expectations for a 0.4% decline. Orders primarily rose 0.3% easing from July’s 0.7% gain and coming in below the 0.6% forecast excluding transportation.

Non-defence capital goods excluding aircraft is a key performance indicator that increased 1.6% month-on-month, accelerating from July’s 0.6% rise and coming in comfortably ahead of the 0.5% market expectation.

On social platform X, users have been responding with one writing, “ Factories ordered the same amount of big stuff last month. Experts thought they’d order less. Flat is better than down, but it’s not a boom.”

Second added, “Durable goods orders holding steady can shift macro expectations pretty quickly.”

Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had specifically expected a decrease of 0.3%. Furthermore, transportation equipment, down three of the last four months drove the decrease falling 0.6%; excluding defense new orders increased 0.1%.