Economists' Outlook

Housing stats and analysis from NAR's research experts.

Each day the Research staff takes a look at recently released economic indicators, addressing what these indicators mean for REALTORS® and their clients. Today’s update highlights factory orders.

  • New orders for factory goods fell again in August for the second time in three months. Orders for manufactured goods were down 0.2 percent, after a downward 2.1 revision in July, suggesting a some softening in the manufacturing sector.
  • Softening is not wide spread though. While demand for motor vehicles fell, following a strong jump in July, orders for capital goods surged up. Weak numbers were also reflected in primary metals, but that was largely driver by falling prices.
  • An increase in capital goods, mostly reflecting business demand, was driven by civilian aircraft orders, while demand for consumer-type goods, reflecting weakness in the job market, was fragile.
  • Shipments also fell 0.2 percent leading to a slight build-up in inventories, which are up 0.4 percent.
  • The upcoming employment report on Friday will provide a clearer picture of the employment situation, but the slight up and down movements in factory orders are consistent with our assessment of a slow economic expansion.

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