By Ruth Mantell, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Orders for U.S.-made factory goods rose 0.4% in June, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.
Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected orders to fall 1%, following a gain of 1.1% in the prior month.
Orders for durable goods fell 2.2%, an improvement from the government's prior estimate of a 2.5% drop. Orders for nondurable goods rose 2.7%. Excluding transportation equipment, new factory orders rose 2.3%.
Despite declines in some data, analysts see signs that the manufacturing sector is stabilizing. For example, orders for core capital goods, which are used by businesses to expand or update their productive capacity, rose for the second consecutive month, gaining 2.6% in June.
"Orders have risen over the last three months on all the aggregate measures (most notably orders excluding transportation), driven by gains in orders for basic manufacturing goods such as metals and industrial machinery," wrote analysts at RDQ Economics in a research note prior to the data's release.
And earlier this week, the Institute for Supply Management reported that the contraction is slowing among the nation's manufacturing firms. The ISM index rose to 48.9% in July above the 46.2% expected by economists. Readings below 50% indicate that more firms are contracting than growing.
Details
The Commerce Department reported that overall shipments rose 1.4% in June, following 10 consecutive months of declines. Shipments of durable goods fell 0.1% in June, and were down for 11 consecutive months, the longest streak of declines since comparable data were first published in 1992.
Unfilled orders fell 0.9% in June, and were down for nine consecutive months in the longest streak since November 2001 to July 2002.
Inventories fell 0.8% and were down for 10 consecutive months.
