U.S. Factory Orders Surprise Wall Street; Jump 1.4% In March

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Factory orders in the United States increased sharply in March after two months of straight decline. The Commerce Department reported on Friday that new factory orders climbed 1.4 percent in March, after sinking 0.9 percent in February.

Market analysts surveyed by Thomson's IFR Markets were expecting a smaller rise of 0.3 percent.

"The cross currents of a weak domestic economy and a strong export sector continue to keep activity from faltering sharply," Jonathan Basile, an economist at Credit Suisse Holdings Inc. in New York, told Bloomberg.

U.S. goods orders for March, excluding orders for transportation products, jumped by 2.2 percent, the largest gain in a year, compared to 2.0 percent gain expected by Wall Street.

The report indicated that the orders for the non-durable goods, including food, paper products, and petroleum and coal products, surprisingly edged up by 2.6 percent.

The rise in the non-durable goods demand, which is the strongest gain since November 2007, is partly driven by higher prices for commodities.

Demand for durable products rose by 0.1 percent in March, after the orders fell slightly in February and plunged 4.4 percent in January.

Orders for defense aircraft surged by as much as 31.9 percent, while the orders for civilian aircraft was up by 6.6 percent.

So far this year, the overall orders for factory products have risen by 0.6 percent during 2008.