Today, Durable Goods Orders for March were positive, totaling 2.6% seasonally adjusted, a second positive month (0.7% for February) after the significant drop in January (-6.9%). These series tend to be very volatile, and after a month with a substantial drop, you should expect a buildup next month.

The growth in new orders is primarily driven by the transportation sector. If we exclude this sector, the new orders only saw a modest increase of 0.2% MoM (2.4% annualized).

The feeling is that New Orders growth remains subdued, as it didn´t give a prominent number after the January drop. Yes, the Transportation sector New Orders came in at +7.7%, but the January drop was -18.3%, and February was up by just 1.8%. It sounds more like a mild recovery than an expansion.

The same could be said about inventories, which match what we saw yesterday with the flash PMI data, unchanged to slight increases in inventories around the main categories.