January Factory Report Sends Mixed Signals

Orders for U.S. manufactured goods jumped 1.7% in January to $359.6 billion, but the strength came mostly from an enormous 102.7% jump in the aircraft orders, the Commerce Department said, painting a mixed picture of the economy’s struggling industrial sector. Stripped of the volatile transportation sector, factory orders actually fell by 0.3%. Separately, the Labor Department said the number of Americans filing new claims for state unemployment benefits unexpectedly declined last week, by 8,000 to a seasonally adjusted 286,000. It was the fifth time in a row that the level of claims was below 300,000, the longest such stretch since early 1974. The four-week moving average of claims, which evens out the volatile weekly totals, declined to 290,750, from 293,000, for the lowest average since February 1989.