New U.S. industrial orders were unchanged for a second straight month in February as weak demand for commercial aircraft outweighed gains in other sectors.
The stable reading in February, reported by the US Department of Commerce this Friday (10), was better than economists’ expectations of a 0.2% decline. Orders increased 3.7% in February from a year earlier.
The Department is still catching up on data releases following last year’s U.S. government shutdown.
The manufacturing sector, which accounts for 10.1% of the economy, was showing signs of recovery after the impacts suffered by President Donald Trump’s tariffs. However, it caused oil prices to rise by more than 30%, which could affect the recovery.
Commercial aircraft orders fell 28.6%. But there were increases in orders for computers and electronics, machinery, primary metals and fabricated metal products.
Orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, which are seen as a measure of companies’ spending plans on equipment, rose 0.7% in February.
