March 24 (UPI) — U.S. federal data on Friday show new orders for manufactured durable goods declined again on the back of lower demand for passenger planes and consumer vehicles, though other indices were virtually unchanged.
Data from the U.S. Census Bureau show new orders for domestic-made goods such as factory equipment declined by $2.6 billion, or 1%, in February.
“This followed a 5.0% January decrease,” a report released Friday read. “Excluding transportation, new orders were virtually unchanged.”
Durable goods such as washing machines require more of a capital commitment from buyers, showing the metric serves as an indicator of current economic conditions as well as future expectations.
Federal data show durable goods orders increased by 5.1% over the November to December period. Stubborn inflation and an end to pandemic-era stimulus is leading to bloated credit card balances as consumers struggle to keep up, while rate hikes from the Federal Reserve make the lending necessary for big financial commitments more costly.
Coupled with fears of a global financial crisis triggered by recent concerns about the health of the banking sector and the U.S. economic outlook is somewhat grim.
“Memories of the global financial crisis resurfaced with a vengeance these past couple of weeks after financial markets were rocked by the worst banking sector turmoil since 2008,” Ole Hanson, the head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank in Denmark, said Friday.
There may be some underlying relief on the horizon. Market turmoil is keeping a lid on retail gasoline prices, though that too could lead to more consumer spending given the extra discretionary cash on hand.
Wholesale prices, however, are on the decline. The Producer Price Index, a reflection of prices at the wholesale level, declined 0.1% in February. At the retail level prices remain elevated, with grocery bills up 10.2% over the 12-month period ending in February.
Month-on-month, however, and retail prices for food at home are on the decline. Prices from December to January increased by 0.4% and 0.3% from January to February.
All major stock market indices were trading in the red on Friday. The tech-heavy NASDAQ was the worst performer in U.S. markets on the day, dipping by about a half percent as of 12:30 p.m. EDT.