Today’s Durable Goods Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories and Orders report indicated that total new orders declined 3.3% from September to $196.045 billion while excluding transportation new orders decreased 2.7% to $143.781 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 latest release, "discretionary" durable goods orders continues to slow declining 1.94% since September but still remaining 8.81% above the level seen in October 2009.
Though the trends in discretionary new orders still remain positive on the year, the recent slowing trend warrants tracking this measure closely in coming months.
