Durable Orders increased by 0.3% during July to $193.0 billion, lower than the expected 2.5% increase. This was the first increase in durable-goods orders in three months, after a 0.1% decrease in June, far lower than the originally reported 1% decrease. Excluding transportation, which increased by 13.1%, orders decreased 3.8%, the biggest such drop since January 2009. Inventories rose for the seventh consecutive month, by 0.6%. Orders for capital goods excluding aircraft decreased by 8% in July, following an increase of 3.6% in June. Core capital goods also declined by 1.5%.
 
New Home Sales for July are expected today at 10:00 AM EST to increase to a 340,000 annual pace, following an increase of 23.6% in June to an annual pace of 330,000 homes with a median sales price of $213,400 and an average sales price of $242,900.
 
Crude inventories are expected today at 10:30 AM EST. For the week ending August 13, U.S. commercial crude oil inventories had decreased by 0.8 million barrels from the previous week to 354.2 million barrels and were above the upper limit of the average range for that time of year. U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 15.2 million barrels per day during this period, 172 thousand barrels per day above the previous week’s average. U.S. crude oil imports were averaging 9.6 million barrels per day, up by 120 thousand barrels per day from the previous week.
 
Upcoming Releases

New Home Sales (08/25 at 10:00 AM EST)
Crude Inventories (08/25 at 10:30 AM EST)
Initial Claims (08/26 at 8:30 AM EST)
GDP Q2 Preliminary (08/27 at 8:30 AM EST)

 
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