US factory orders unexpectedly rose 0.2 per cent in January on electrical equipment strength while a gauge of business spending also posted solid gains, a government report showed today.
The rise in factory orders to a seasonally adjusted $380.53 billion defied Wall Street expectations for a 0.1 per cent drop. The Commerce Department also revised up December's factory orders to a 0.5 percent rise from an originally reported 0.3 per cent gain.
Meanwhile, January orders for durable goods - those intended to last for three years or more - were revised to a 1.3 per cent fall from a smaller 0.9 per cent decline.
Non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, seen by economists as a measure of business spending strength, rose 2.9 per cent in January after an upwardly revised 3.4 percent climb in December.
Transportation orders, the largest single component in factory business, fell 5.4 percent in the month after a 2.3 percent decline in December.
The weakness was offset by a 12.3 percent jump in orders for electrical equipment, appliances and components - the sector's largest advance since September 1997.
Excluding transportation, factory orders rose 1.1 per cent in January. Total inventories jumped a record 1.3 per cent in January while durable goods inventories also rose a record 1.2 per cent. The inventories-to-shipments ratio was unchanged at 1.23 in January.