Durable Orders increased by 0.5% or $0.9 billion, during February to $178.1 billion, lower than the expected 0.6% increase. This was the third consecutive monthly increase and followed a 3.9% January increase. Machinery, up three of the last four months, had the largest increase, $1.1 billion or 4.7% to $23.3 billion. Transportation equipment, down two consecutive months, had the largest decrease, $1.5 billion or 3.4% to $43.8 billion.
New Home Sales for January are expected today at 10:00 AM EST to increase to a 313,000 annual pace, following a decrease of 11.2% in January to an annual pace of 309,000 homes with a median sales price of $203,500 and an average sales price of $254,500.
Crude inventories are expected today at 10:30 AM EST. For the week ending March 12, U.S. commercial crude oil inventories had increased by 1.0 million barrels from the previous week to 344.0 million barrels and were above the upper limit of the average range for that time of year. U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 13.9 million barrels per day during this period, 15 thousand barrels per day above the previous week’s average. U.S. crude oil imports were averaging 8.4 million barrels per day, down 64 thousand barrels per day from the previous week.
Upcoming Releases
New Home Sales (03/24 at 10:00 AM EST)
Crude Inventories (03/24 at 10:30 AM EST)
Initial Claims (03/25 at 8:30 AM EST)
GDP Q4 Final (03/26 at 8:30 AM EST)
