US manufacturing gets boost from 3-year high in auto sales

Auto sales in June gained by 4.4 percent, reversing May’s decline and marking the biggest increase since March 2015. (AFP)

WASHINGTON: The US manufacturing sector rebounded in June, with auto sales posting the largest monthly increase in more than three years, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.
The upturn in orders for big-ticket manufactured goods broke a two-month losing streak but still disappointed economists who were expecting a larger gain.
Nevertheless, the report showed steady increases outside the volatile transportation sector, with sales of appliances and electronics trending higher, putting the US manufacturing sector on the upswing at the close of the second quarter.
Meanwhile, orders of US-made primary metals, an industry at the heart of President Donald Trump’s global trade confrontations, saw their biggest drop in five months.
Total orders for large, US-manufactured items rose one percent for the month to $251.9 billion, according to the report. Economists had been betting on a far larger 3.2 percent increase.
Shipments also saw the largest increase in more than a year, rising 1.7 percent to $251.6 billion.
Civilian and defense aircraft orders both rose sharply while auto sales gained by 4.4 percent, reversing May’s decline and marking the biggest increase since March 2015.
Outside the volatile transportation sector, which sees big swings from month to month, sales rose 0.4 percent, matching analyst expectations and posting the fifth straight monthly increase.
Sales of primary metals fell 0.4 percent, the biggest drop since January, but orders for non-defense capital goods, an industry in part tied to the oil sector, rose 0.6 percent, the third consecutive monthly increase.
Meanwhile, sales of electrical equipment, appliances and non-defense capital goods all rose.