Factory Orders in U.S. Increase More Than Twice the Forecast - 7th increase in 8 months

[JohnWxy]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aINkzaNjM6qs&pos=2


Jan. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Factory orders in the U.S. rose in November more than twice as much as anticipated, led by gains in demand for business equipment that indicate companies are boosting spending and production.

Bookings rose 1.1 percent, the seventh increase in eight months, figures from the Commerce Department showed today in Washington. The median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for a 0.5 percent gain.

Demand has increased against a backdrop of record inventory reduction during the first nine months of 2009, spurring production at the nation’s factories. The acceleration that led the economy out of the worst recession since the 1930s may soon be accompanied by hiring and more corporate investment.

“Production is catching up to sales as firms don’t feel the need to cut inventories further,” said Dean Maki, chief U.S. economist at Barclays Capital Inc. in New York who forecast a 1 percent gain in factory orders. “That’s one of the significant reasons for the acceleration in manufacturing activity.”

[thunder rising]

1. blah blah blah. when your 400% behind a 1% rise is shit.

[JohnWxy]

2. I have friends out of work so I'm pulling for AMerica to come out of this Republican Dystopia but

I know REpublicans are gnashing their teeth over any good news for AMerica.

[Po_d Mainiac]

3. Freight haulers tell a different story

UPS is laying off 1800...YRC damn near filed, but GS must think there are a couple more drops of blood to be sucked....Arrow now has no pulse.

The largest export, by container volume, from US ports is...drum roll please........waste paper (No, not greenbacks)...

[edhopper]

4. misleading numbers for the crowd on Wall Street

"The Federal Reserve Board reported that industrial production increased by 0.6 percent in December. This would ordinarily be good news, except that a closer examination showed that manufacturing output actually shrank slightly for the month.The December increase was driven almost entirely by a 5.9 percent jump in output at utilities. This tells us about the weather across the country in December, but it doesn't tell us much about the state of the economy."

--Dean Baker