Durable Orders increased by 2.5% or $5.0 billion, during March to $208.4 billion, against the expected 2.2% increase. This increase, up three consecutive months, follows a 0.7% February increase, revised from an originally reported decline of 0.9%. Excluding transportation, new orders increased 1.3%. Excluding defense, new orders increased 2.3%. Transportation equipment, also up three consecutive months, had the largest increase, $3.1 billion or 5.9% to $54.7 billion.  Non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft, a strong indicator of business spending, increased 3.7% after an upwardly revised 0.5% gain in February.

Crude inventories are expected today at 10:30 AM EST.  For the week ending April 15, U.S. commercial crude oil inventories had decreased by 2.3 million barrels from the previous week to 357.0 million barrels and were above the upper limit of the average range for that time of year. U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 14.1 million barrels per day during this period, 87 thousand barrels per day above the previous week’s average. U.S. crude oil imports were averaging just less than 8.1 million barrels per day, down by 518 thousand barrels per day from the previous week.

The FOMC Policy Statement will be released today at 2:15 PM EST, which will conclude the 2 day meeting of the Board of Governors. The topic for discussion is the Fed’s Beige Book, which indicated that economic activity generally continued to improve since the last report. While many districts described the improvements as only moderate, most districts stated that gains were widespread. However, Boston, Philadelphia, Richmond, Atlanta, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Dallas all noted actual or expected disruptions to sales and production as a result of the Japan crisis. All districts reported that manufacturing activity had increased. However, real estate markets were either little changed or continued to weaken across all districts. In the last policy statement released on March 15, the FOMC had decided to maintain the federal funds target rate within a range of 0 to 0.25%.

Upcoming Releases

Crude Inventories (04/27 at 10:30 AM EST)
FOMC Policy Statement (04/27 at 2:15 PM EST)
GDP Q1 Advance (04/28 at 8:30 AM EST)
Initial Claims (04/28 at 8:30 AM EST)

 

 
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