Durable Goods Orders
December’s Durable Goods Orders report was released at 8:30 AM ET this morning, revealing a 0.2% rise in new orders for big-ticket products such as airplanes, appliances and electronics. This was weaker than the 0.9% increase that was expected, but the size of the variance isn’t as important in this report as it is in others. That is because this data is known to be quite volatile from month to month, meaning large swings are common. Still, we can consider the data slightly favorable for mortgage rates as it indicates weaker than forecasted manufacturing activity.