U.S. durable goods orders, which track demand for manufactured items meant to last at least three years, rose by 5.3% month-over-month in November, said the U.S. Census Bureau on Monday. That came in well above the consensus estimate of 3.8% and marked the highest rate of growth since May.
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New orders for non-defense aircraft were the star of the report, rising by 97.6% compared to October. U.S. aircraft manufacturer Boeing (BA) reported 164 orders in November compared to 15 in the prior month.
Durable Goods Orders Signal Increasing Trade Policy Confidence
Excluding transportation, new orders increased by 0.5% from the previous month, higher than the estimate of 0.3%. The higher-than-expected growth signals that companies may be looking past tariffs as trade policy uncertainty declines.
“While uncertainty is far from eliminated, executives appear to have reached the point where they have enough information to move forward,” said Santander US Capital Markets Chief U.S. Economist Stephen Stanley. That could bode well for the manufacturing sector and for the economy as a whole.