U.S. Durable Goods Rose Again in May on Transportation Spending

By Dean Seal

Orders for long-lasting goods kept rising in May thanks to strong demand for transportation equipment and nondefense aircraft.

New orders for products meant to last at least three years, including appliances, computers, cars and other manufactured goods, increased 1.7% in May from the month prior to a seasonally adjusted $288.2 billion, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.

That was the third consecutive month of order growth after a revised 1.2% increase in April and 3.3% rise in March. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had forecast a 1% drop in May.

Excluding defense categories, new orders were up 3%, led by transportation equipment. Stripping out transportation, new orders were still up 0.6%.

A closely watched proxy for business investment--new orders for nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft--rose 0.7% from the previous month to $73.96 billion.

Orders for nondefense aircraft and parts jumped by nearly a third, while overall capital goods orders were up 2.8%.

Orders for defense aircraft meanwhile fell 35.4% from last month, according to the Commerce Department's report. New orders for defense capital goods were down 14.7%.

Write to Dean Seal at dean.seal@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 27, 2023 09:15 ET (13:15 GMT)

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