durable goods orders

Official name: Advance Report on Durable Goods Manufacturers' Shipments and Orders

What exactly? A measure of the value of orders received by manufacturers for durable goods -- goods designed to last three years or more (such as motor vehicles and appliances).

Source: Census Bureau

Frequency: Monthly

Released when? Around the 26th of the month at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. Data for prior month.

Market importance: Much. Timely and volatile. Frequently moves markets. Considered a key factory-sector indicator.

Other notes:(a) Report also includes shipments (a synonym for sales) and unfilled orders. (b) Nondefense capital goods shipments used to predict the business investment component of gross domestic product. (c) The portion of the durables report that measures manufacturers' new orders for consumer goods and materials is a component of the leading economic indicators index -- as is the portion that measures new orders for nondefense capital goods. (d) The headline number is the percent change from the prior month, but we also graph the year-on-year change. That way you can see the rate at which durable goods orders are increasing or decreasing.