The data published by the U.S. Census Bureau revealed that durable goods orders in February contracted by 1.6% and came in better than the market expectation for a decline of 1.8%. The market reaction to this reading was relatively muted and the US Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was last up 0.04% on the day at 97.39.
Key takeaways from the press release
- Excluding transportation, new orders increased 0.1 percent.
- Excluding defense, new orders decreased 1.9 percent.
- Transportation equipment, also down following three consecutive monthly increases, drove the decrease, $4.3 billion or 4.8 percent to $86.0 billion.
- Shipments of manufactured durable goods in February, up three of the last four months, increased $0.5 billion or 0.2 percent to $258.6 billion.
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