Definition
The monthly Full Report on Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories, & Orders from the United States Census Bureau, more commonly called the Factory Orders report, totals the dollar volume of new orders, shipments, unfilled orders, and inventories reported by domestic manufacturers. Figures within the Factory Orders report are reported in the billions of dollars and also in a percent change from the previous month. Generally the Factory Orders report is not as widely watched as other economic releases. The Advance Release on Durable Goods, which usually precedes the Factory Orders report by one week, garners more attention, given that the durable goods report includes orders for capital goods, a proxy for equipment investment.
What is ‘Factory Orders ‘
An economic indicator that reports the dollar level of new factory orders for both durable and non-durable goods. The factory orders report is released monthly by the Census Bureau of the U.S. Department of Commerce one or two weeks following the durable goods orders report.
The factory orders report is split up into four sections:
Explaining ‘Factory Orders ‘
Because the performance of the economy has a large effect on the performance of the investment markets, it is important for investors to monitor indicators such as the Factory Orders to provide insight into growth trends.
As with other indicators that monitor manufacturing and production, equity markets will be positively affected when the factory orders reports an increase in production. Also the factory orders reports gives more detailed information than the durable goods orders report.
Further Reading
- Economic news and bond prices: Evidence from the US Treasury market – www.jstor.org [PDF]
- What moves sovereign bond markets? The effects of economic news on US and German yields – papers.ssrn.com [PDF]
- Natural gas based trigeneration system proposal to an ice cream factory: An energetic and economic assessment – www.sciencedirect.com [PDF]
- International order after the financial crisis – academic.oup.com [PDF]
- Exchange rate volatility response to macroeconomic news during the global financial crisis – www.sciencedirect.com [PDF]
- Retailer’s economic order quantity when the supplier offers conditionally permissible delay in payments link to order quantity – www.sciencedirect.com [PDF]
- Economic prescriptions for environmental problems: how the patient followed the doctor’s orders – www.aeaweb.org [PDF]
- Informed and strategic order flow in the bond markets – academic.oup.com [PDF]
- Autocracy and the factory order in early Russian Industrialization – www.cambridge.org [PDF]
