US October factory orders -1.3% vs -1.2% expected

• Prior was +0.2%

This is a badly dated report due to the US government shutdown.

The US factory orders report (officially “manufacturers’ shipments, inventories, and orders”) is a monthly census bureau release that tracks how much US manufacturers receive in new orders, ship out, and hold in inventories. markets watch it as a pulse on goods demand and the manufacturing pipeline, often splitting it into durable goods (long-lasting items like machinery, vehicles, and aircraft) and nondurable goods (short-lived items like food and chemicals). a key feature is that factory orders incorporates and finalizes the prior month’s advance durable goods report: the durable-goods totals and many major categories can be revised, sometimes meaningfully, as more complete company responses arrive. that matters because the headline durable-goods number often drives initial market moves. the factory orders release also adds the nondurable side and provides a fuller picture via shipments and inventories, helping investors gauge momentum, backlog dynamics, and inventory swings.

This article was written by Adam Button at investinglive.com.