New orders and shipments from U.S. factories are up, but are still running behind last year’s levels.

Thursday the U.S. Commerce Department reported new orders for manufactured goods, excluding semiconductors, increased 0.4% in March.
Shipments, excluding semiconductors, increased 0.7% following a 2.9% February decrease.
For the first three months of the year, new orders are running 5.5% below the same period a year ago and 0.3% below the fourth quarter. Likewise, shipments for the first quarter were 5.8% below the same period a year ago and 0.6% below the fourth quarter.
"Everything is moving in the right direction," says Newport Communications Senior Economist Jim Haughey. "Shipments and orders are up strongly and inventories are down significantly," he says. "All of the numbers would have been better if semiconductors were not excluded due to the refusal of many manufacturers to report. Chip production was up 1.3% in the U.S. in March and chip purchases gained 6.5%."
Also during March, shipments of durable goods, excluding semiconductors, was relatively unchanged, while shipments of non-durable goods increased 1.6%.
Haughey also notes non-durable goods inventories fell only 0.1%, saying, “This suggests that inventories are back in balance so that freight gains will now parallel economic growth. With 4% GDP growth expected, non-durable goods should be growing at about a 3% annual pace or about 0.25% a month.”