According to data in the Census Bureau’s durable goods orders released this morning, businesses continue to feel confident in the direction of the economy and are looking for new investments.
Orders for capital goods increased by 2.1 percent to $59.6 billion in May, the International Business Times reports. Machine goods, such as farming and construction equipment, saw the largest increase at 5.6 percent.
The increase in business spending on capital goods may be a good sign for companies looking to add new core products such as office furniture, mobile devices and
business projectors.
New orders for manufactured durable goods increased by 0.9 percent in May, excluding transportation and defense. Paul Ashworth, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics, said the 0.9 percent gain gave him confidence that “Europe’s woes and recent financial market turbulence haven’t dampened the new-found enthusiasm firms have for investing in new capital equipment,” the IB Times relays.
The increase in capital spending matches another recent report that said 43 percent of U.S. companies plan to spend more on capital investments in the next six months. The push for new capital investments may stem from many companies reporting job growth in 2010.
