US Factory Orders Experience a Slight Uptick

In a positive sign for the US economy, new orders for manufactured goods increased by 0.6% in February, reaching $594.0 billion. This growth, amounting to $3.6 billion, slightly exceeded analysts' forecasts, as reported by the US Census Bureau.

Shipments and Unfilled Orders Also on the Rise

Shipments saw a 0.7% increase from the previous month, totaling $596.1 billion. Meanwhile, unfilled orders experienced a modest 0.1% rise, standing at $1,400.7 billion. Inventories also grew by 0.1%, or $1.3 billion, to $864.9 billion.

Key Metric: The inventories-to-shipments ratio decreased to 1.45, indicating a slight improvement from January's figures.