U.S. Factory Orders Spike More Than Expected In April

(RTTNews) - A report released by the Commerce Department on Wednesday showed a substantial increase in new orders for U.S. manufactured goods in the month of April.

The Commerce Department said factory orders soared by 4.8 percent in April after jumping by an upwardly revised 1.8 percent in March.

Economists had expected factory orders to surge by 4.3 percent compared to the 1.5 percent increase originally reported for the previous month.

The spike in factory orders came amid a sharp increase in orders for durable goods, which shot up by 8.0 percent. Orders for transportation equipment led the way higher, skyrocketing by 21.6 percent.

The Commerce Department said orders for non-durable goods also jumped by 1.4 percent during the month.

The report also said shipments of manufactured goods increased by 1.0 percent in April, while inventories of manufactured goods rose by 0.3 percent.

With shipments jumping by more than inventories, the inventories-to-shipments ratio edged down to 1.50 in April from 1.51 in March.