Manufacturers' Nondefense -- Rolling 12m Percent Change Strong

19 באוג׳ 2014

In the top pane is this month's latest Manufacturer's New Orders: Nondefense Capital Goods, compared against the SPX, both on a Monthly timeframe. Plotted in the second pane is the rolling 12 month percent change in new orders. Note that this data is as of 6-14 but is the newest published data.

This indicator is released by the Federal Reserve Board and is useful in determining the amount of CapEx spending companies are doing. CapEx is typified by capital intensive, long-lived goods, such as means of production, factories, or other large tangible goods. New orders can lead the business cycle since more investment in production leads to more production which leads to more demand.

The reason why I found this chart interesting is similar in vein to the Industrial Production chart -- that capital spending, both on an absolute basis as well as on a YoY percentage change basis remain robust.

The most recent YoY value of 11.84% is the highest reading since January 2012.