WASHINGTON, April 10 (Reuters) – New orders for U.S. factory goods were unchanged for a second straight month in February as weak demand for commercial aircraft offset gains elsewhere.
The flat reading in February reported by the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau on Friday was better than economists’ expectations for a 0.2% decline. Orders increased 3.7% year-on-year in February.
The Census Bureau is still catching up on data releases following delays caused by last year’s government shutdown.
Manufacturing, which accounts for 10.1% of the economy, was showing signs of recovery after being hammered by President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs. But the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran has sent oil prices surging by more than 30%, which could stifle the recovery.
Commercial aircraft orders plunged 28.6%. But there were increases in orders for computers and electronic products, machinery, primary metals and fabricated metal products.
The Census Bureau also reported that orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, which are seen as a measure of business spending plans on equipment, increased 0.7% in February instead of rising 0.6% as reported earlier this week.
Shipments of these so-called core capital goods rose 1.0% instead of 0.9% as previously reported.
(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
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