Led by a rise in spending by businesses, orders and shipments of durable goods posted healthy increases in April.

Thursday the U.S Commerce Department reported orders for items designed to last three years or more increased 1.1%, following a revised 0.2% March increase.
Excluding transportation, new orders increased 2.9%; however, for the year to date, new orders are still running 3.9% below the same period a year ago.
Shipments of durable goods in April rose 3.5%, following a 0.5% March increase. For the year to date, shipments are running 4.1% below the same period a year ago.
Both the shipments and orders gains were much larger than expected, said Newport Communications Senior Economist Jim Haughey.
“This means that manufacturing is more healthy than generally thought, since the huge gain was on top of the large aircraft and defense losses and excluded semiconductors, the most rapidly expanding sector,” he said.
April shipments gains were 0.3% for industrial machinery, 1.4% for computer and electronic products, 2.1% for electrical equipment, 2.2% for primary metals, 2.3% for fabricated metals and 12.4% for motor vehicles.
Adding to the positive report is news of a drop in durable goods inventories, which fell 0.3% following a March drop of 0.1%
“The small inventory decline means that there is a further boost to production ahead when the last of the surplus inventory is gone,” said Haughey.
The Commerce Department says the figures are minus numbers from semiconductor makers due to the number of large manufacturers choosing not to participate in the voluntary monthly survey.
Also on Thursday, the U.S. Labor Department reported initial jobless claims declined by 9,000 to 416,000 in the week ending May 18, marking the lowest level in eight weeks.