A report released by the Commerce Department on Friday unexpectedly showed a sharp pullback in new orders for U.S. manufactured goods in the month of July.
The Commerce Department said factory orders slumped by 1.0 percent in July after surging by a revised 1.8 percent in June.
The steep drop surprised economists, who had expected factory orders to edge up by 0.2 percent compared to the 2.0 percent jump originally reported for the previous month.
The unexpected pullback in factory orders was partly due to a notable decrease in orders for non-durable goods, which tumbled by 1.9 percent in July after shooting up by 1.4 percent in June.
The report also showed durable goods orders edged down by 0.1 percent in July after spiking by 2.3 percent in June. Last week, the Commerce Department said durable goods orders were virtually unchanged.
The Commerce Department also said shipments of manufactured goods slid by 0.9 percent in July following sixteen consecutive monthly increases.
Meanwhile, the report said inventories of manufactured goods inched up by 0.1 percent in July after rising by 0.4 percent in June.
With inventories edging higher and shipments falling, the inventories-to-shipments ratio ticked up to 1.47 in July from 1.46 in June.
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