Today’s Durable Goods Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories and Orders report indicated that total new orders declined 1.3% from July to $191.2 billion while excluding transportation new orders increased 2.0% to $148.422 billion.Stripping durable goods orders of defense orders AND non-defense aircraft orders yields an effective measure of orders coming as a direct result of typical discretionary consumer durable goods spending on items such as motor vehicles, furniture, consumer electronic devices and home appliances.
Looking at the August release, discretionary durable goods orders appears to have slowed notably compared to earlier in the year increasing just 0.80% since July and 11.84% above the level seen in August 2009.
Though the trends in discretionary new orders still remain positive, the recent slowing trend warrants tracking this measure closely in coming months.
