With consumers paying significantly more at the pump, the latest data gives the Fed little reason to enact an interest rate cut at the end of April.
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It was a strong monthly acceleration as a handful of durable goods categories saw mid-single digit sales improvement. Meanwhile, the industry's overall sales growth outpaced inventories. Get a full breakdown of the latest government data here, which includes a look at how each product sector's sales and inventories fared month-over-month, year-over-year and year-to-date.
However, HARDI notes January and February are not good indicators of the year ahead because they are low-volume, seasonally insignificant months.
Pricing powered a third straight month in expansion territory. However, PMI survey commentary was overall negative, with numerous respondents citing Iran war impacts.
PMA's latest business conditions report showed a considerable downgrade in near-term optimism.
It was the fourth straight monthly decline for private nonresidential spending, which is now down 8% from its December 2023 all-time high.
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It was another monthly sales gain, though far less robust than in December.
The monthly topline producer price increase was more than double what economists forecasted.
Most Fed officials still expect at least one modest rate cut later this year.
U.S. industrial output edged up in February, cooling from the prior month's near-one-year high as utilities retreated and capacity utilization remained below its long-run average.
That’s half the growth from the initial estimate and a fraction of the 4.4% seen in 3Q.
It suggests housing market momentum after two solid growth months beat expectations to start the year.
It continues a solid growth period for the market after 2025 shipments ended the year up 2.5% annually.
A largely neutral February likely gives the Federal Reserve more reason to maintain interest rates when the group meets on March 17-18.
Orders sunk from their December record high, but were up year-over-year despite volume maintaining a longer-term low trend.
A modest January same-day sales decline follows a larger decline in December, though HARDI said the soft past couple months isn't out of the ordinary for seasonality.
The modest decrease suggests sustained early-year momentum as 12 of 17 manufacturing sectors remained in growth territory.
The topline figure snapped three straight months of decline, though nonresidential spending saw a sharp decline.
The subindex for final demand services drove the increase, largely traced to a spike in margins for wholesalers of professional and commercial equipment.
