U.S. factory orders continue to be subdued in January, rises 0.1 pct sequentially

U.S. factory orders continue to be weak in January. Moreover, demand for U.S. manufactured goods continued to be dragged down by several more persistent influences, such as the fading fiscal stimulus, weak external conditions, ongoing trade tensions, and impacts of the Fed’s tightening cycle on interest-sensitive goods.

On a sequential basis, overall factory good orders rose 0.1 percent, as compared with consensus expectations of 0.3 percent and little changed from December’s 0.1 percent. The weak overall reading mainly reflected softness in the incoming estimates for nondurables, where orders dropped further 0.2 percent sequential on the heels of January’s 1.1 percent sequential fall, noted Barclays in a research report.

As anticipated, the picture for January durable goods orders was little changed from last week’s advance print, with durable goods orders rising 0.3 percent on the month, reflecting another solid reading in the transportation category.

Stripping transportation, durable goods orders dropped 0.2 percent sequentially in January, as compared with a 0.3 percent sequential fall in the initial print. Revised estimates for orders and shipments of core capital goods orders did not differ significantly from last week’s encouraging initial prints, with both orders and shipments rising 0.8 percent sequentially in January, said Barclays.

At 17:00 GMT the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of US Dollar was highly bearish at -105.929 more details on FxWirePro's Currency Strength Index, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex