"The manufacturing sector is showing resiliency as new orders for manufactured goods increased by 9.9 percent in September, reversing a 13.1 percent decline in August," said Donald A. Norman, Senior Economist for the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation. "Much of the September increase was due to new orders for transportation equipment which increased by 31.7 percent. Excluding transportation, new orders increased 2.0 percent, reversing the 2.1 percent decline from July to August. The monthly series on durable goods orders is often volatile because new orders can arrive, or disappear, in big blocks. New orders for durable goods have increased in four of the last five months. The overall trend in new orders this year indicates that while manufacturing sector activity has slowed, it nonetheless continues to expand.
"Industry groups reporting the largest gains in new orders in September included primary metals (up 4.1 percent); machinery (up 9.2 percent) and, as noted above, transportation equipment," Norman noted. "Industries that saw orders decline included computers and electronic products (down 2.5 percent) and electrical equipment (down 2.7 percent). Orders for motor vehicles and parts were down 0.4 percent, an improvement from August when they were down 11.6 percent."