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Pastimes : The Naked Truth - Big Kahuna a Myth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MythMan who wrote (4987)	9/2/1998 10:41:00 AM
From: Joseph G.	Respond to of 86076

<<WASHINGTON, Sept 2 (Reuters) - New orders received by U.S. factories posted the strongest increase in eight months during July, the Commerce Department said on Wednesday, despite a strike at auto giant General Motors Corp. that was finally settled at the end of the month. Total new orders increased 1.2 percent to $335.2 billion, the largest monthly rise since a 2.3 percent surge in November last year, following a 0.3 percent June gain. Excluding transportation products, orders were up even more strongly by 1.4 percent in July after a matching 1.4 percent rise in June. The July factory orders rise was modestly below Wall Street economists' forecasts for a larger 1.4 percent increase but still reflected a relatively broad-based pickup in demand for manufactured goods. Orders for costly durable goods -- items like appliances and machinery intended to last three years or more -- rose a revised 1.9 percent to $186.4 billion in July after a 0.1 percent June rise. Nondurable orders for goods like food and gasoline grew 0.4 percent to $148.8 billion following a 0.5 percent June rise. The strongest gain in monthly orders was for electronics and electrical equipment, up 10 percent to $33.1 billion after a 3.2 percent June rise. Orders for industrial machinery and equipment, which includes computers, rose 1.9 percent to $37.6 billion in July after an identical 1.9 percent June increase. Transportation orders slipped by 0.3 percent to $39.3 billion following declines of 7.2 percent in June and 4.5 percent in May. The GM strike that closed plants throughout North America ended in late July and these orders are expected to bounce back in August with the resumption of full production. Shipments of finished manufactured goods fell 0.1 percent in July to $334.9 billion -- largely a result of reduced new-car shipments to dealers -- after a 0.4 percent June rise. Backlogs of unfilled orders were up 0.1 percent to $529.9 billion after a 0.7 percent decrease in June, boosted by continuing brisk demand for electronic goods like semiconductors, the department said. >>