U.S. Factory Orders Show Continued Increase In July

(RTTNews) - After reporting sharp increases in new orders for U.S. manufactured goods over the two previous months, the Commerce Department released a report on Thursday showing factory orders saw some further upside in the month of July.

The report showed factory orders rose by 0.4 percent in July after jumping by 1.5 percent in June and spiking by 2.3 percent in May. Economists had expected factory orders to increase by 0.3 percent.

The continued increase in factory orders came as a 0.9 percent advance in orders for non-durable goods more than offset a 0.1 percent dip in orders for durable goods.

The Commerce Department also said shipments of manufactured goods shot up by 1.6 percent in July after surging by 1.9 percent in June.

Inventories of manufactured goods also rose by 0.5 percent in July after climbing by 1.0 percent in the previous month.

With shipments increasing by much more than inventories, the inventories-to-shipments ratio dropped to 1.46 in July from 1.48 in June.