US: Durable goods orders increased by 0.4% in January vs -0.5% expected

"ew orders for manufactured durable goods in January increased $0.9 billion or 0.4 percent to $255.3 billion," the U.S. Census Bureau reported on Wednesday. This reading came above the market expectation for a decline of 0.5%.

Key takeaways from the press release

• This increase, up three consecutive months, followed a 1.3 percent December increase.
• Excluding transportation, new orders decreased 0.1 percent.
• Excluding defense, new orders increased 0.7 percent.
• Transportation equipment, up five of the last six months, drove the increase, $1.0 billion or 1.2 percent to $90.9 billion.