NAM Report (CONT’D FROM PAGE 16)
eight months of 2023, factory orders excluding transpor- tation have increased 1.0 per cent, with activity trending higher over the summer months. Likewise, new orders for core capital goods — a proxy for capital spending in the U.S. economy — rose 0.9 per cent to a record $73.95 billion in August, with 0.4 percent growth year-over-year and 1.3 percent growth year to date. Private manufacturing construction rose 1.2 percent to $197.95 billion in August. This was just shy of the record high in May, which was $199.73 billion. Private construction in the sector has trended sharply higher since bottoming out at $72.71 billion in September 2000. Over the past 12 months, activity has risen a whopping 65.9 percent. The U.S. trade deficit decreased to $58.30 billion in August, the lowest since June 2020, with goods exports rising and goods imports declining. In addition, the ser- vice-sector trade surplus rose to $26.17 billion, the highest since March 2018. Earlier this month, there was a lot of focus on inflation- ary trends, with updates on consumer and producer pric- es. Financial markets have been keenly following these data. Yields on 10-year Treasury bills rose to rates not seen since 2007, and 30-year fixed-rate mortgages were at the highest rates since 2000 last week. In many ways, the bond market is doing the job of the Federal Reserve. As such, the next Federal Open Market Committee meeting, which is Oct. 31-Nov. 1, will need to digest divergent trends in the economy.
August. For every 1.5 job openings in the economy, there was essentially just one unemployed worker. While manufacturers continued to remain challenged overall, with activity contracting for the 11th straight month, there were also encouraging signs of stabilization in the latest ISM Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index. The headline index rose for the third consecutive month from 47.6 in August to 49.0 in September, the highest reading since August 2022.
After dropping by 2.1 percent in July, new orders for manufactured goods rebounded somewhat, increasing 1.2 percent in August. Excluding transportation equipment, new factory orders jumped 1.4 percent, expanding for the third straight month to a new record high. Through the first
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October 23, 2023
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