Doh!
Let’s see now. Wall Street economists were expecting March durable goods orders to be up 1.8%. In reality they were up 6.1%, or three times what Wall Streets best and brightest had predicted. All of this tells us two things. One, the economy is absolutely booming, and anyone who doesn’t understand that this is the best economy of the last 50 years or so is positively dense. And two, a lot of people on Wall Street are getting paid way too much money.
Orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket manufactured goods soared in March by the largest amount in 10 months, reflecting a big increase in demand for civilian aircraft.
The 6.1 percent increase in orders for durable goods, everything from computers to airplanes, followed a 2.7 percent rise in March, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.
It was the biggest advance since a 7.3 percent increase in May 2005 and was more than three times the 1.8 percent increase that Wall Street had been expecting. Two-thirds of the gain reflected a 71.1 percent jump in demand for commercial aircraft.
The manufacturing sector has been powering ahead in recent months, helped by efforts to restock lean inventories and a desire on the part of many companies to purchase new equipment to expand and modernize.
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