US factory orders rise 0.2% in December, slowing down from November

By Ovunc Kutlu

ISTANBUL (AA) - US factory orders rose just 0.2% in December 2023, significantly slowing down from the month before, according to Commerce Department figures released Friday.

New orders for manufactured goods increased $1.2 billion to reach $594.3 billion, up for the fourth time in the last five months.

The expectation for the figure, which measures the change in the value of new purchase orders placed with manufacturers, was to show a gain of 0.3%.

Despite the increase, the figure is a significant slowdown from the rise of 2.6% recorded in November 2023.

New orders for manufactured durable goods in November decreased less than $0.1 billion to $295.4 billion – down two times in the past three months.

Transportation equipment, down three of the last four months, led the decrease with a fall of $0.7 billion, or 0.8%, to $89.6 billion.