Durable Goods Orders: December 2024

New orders for manufactured durable goods rose to $276.06B in December, the lowest level since June. This represents a 2.2% decrease from the previous month and a 3.9% decline from one year ago. The latest reading was worse than the expected 0.3% growth.

New orders for manufactured durable goods in December, down four of the last five months, decreased $6.3 billion or 2.2 percent to $276.1 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau announced today. This followed a 2.0 percent November decrease. Excluding transportation, new orders increased 0.3 percent. Excluding defense, new orders decreased 2.4 percent. Transportation equipment, also down four of the last five months, drove the decrease, $6.9 billion or 7.4 percent to $86.1 billion.

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Durable Goods

Durable goods refers to tangible products that can be stored or inventoried and that have an average life of at least three years. Durable goods are typically expensive and therefore tend to be purchased when there is confidence in the economy. New orders for durable goods are a leading indicator, meaning when purchases increase it typically hints at an improvement to the economy. On the flip side, when the new orders trend down it is indicating a lack of confidence in the economy.