United States Durable Goods Orders

New orders for manufactured durable goods in the US surged 9.2% month-over-month to $315.7 billion in March 2025, marking the third consecutive monthly increase and far exceeding market expectations of a 2% rise. The sharp uptick was largely driven by a rush in orders for commercial aircraft. Transportation equipment jumped 27%, mainly nondefense aircraft and parts (139%) and motor vehicles and parts (2.3%). Excluding transportation, new orders were virtually unchanged. Orders were also up for capital goods (24.3%), namely nondefense (29.4%), primary metals (0.7%), fabricated metal products (0.2%) and machinery (0.1%) while orders for computers and electronics were down 1.2%. Meanwhile, orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending plans, edged up 0.1% in March, rebounding from a 0.3% fall in February but below forecasts of 0.2%.