Durable goods orders rise in June

The U.S. Department of Commerce reported today that demand for durable goods grew by 1.4 percent in June to total $215.4 billion. This marked the third straight month that manufacturers have seen orders increase following three consecutive declines at the beginning of 2005 that raised concerns about the manufacturing's health. Economists had forecast a decline of around 1 percent.

June's 1.4 percent increase followed a 6.4 percent jump in orders in May, which reflected a big increase in commercial aircraft sales. After rising 167 percent in May, orders in this sector fell by 24.2 percent in June.

Orders for new cars and auto parts edged down 0.1 percent in June after having risen by 0.6 percent in May. Excluding transportation, durable goods orders were 2.6 percent in June, nearly three times the 0.9 percent rise in orders outside of transportation in May.

Inventories of manufactured durable goods in June, down two of the last three months, decreased $0.8 billion or 0.3 percent to $291.1 billion. This followed a 0.1 percent May increase.