New orders for manufactured goods clocked in at $477.6 billion for November 2012, a negligible bump above October's $477.4 billion, according to a Department of Commerce report [link opens in PDF] released today. Compared to November 2011, new orders are up 3.2%.
Source: Department of Commerce.
After September's 4.5% gain and October's 0.8% bump, these newest numbers reverse immediate hopes of a positive trend for new factory orders. The report also failed to meet expectations of Wall Street analysts, who had expected a 0.3% increase for November.
Inventories remained relatively unchanged from October's $615.2 billion, but are up 2.5% from November 2011. Inventories of durable goods continued their climb, increasing 0.2% to $374.8 billion. Up 34 of the last 35 months, these newest numbers represent the highest level reached since data was first recorded in 1992.
In more positive news, shipments increased 0.4% and are up four of the last five months. The inventories-to-shipments ratio, a statistic used to measure the sustainable flow of goods, dropped slightly to 1.27.
