jueves, 27 de marzo de 2014

jueves, marzo 27, 2014

March 26, 2014, 11:07 AM ET

Vital Signs: Still No Momentum in Business Spending

By Kathleen Madigan


Makers of capital equipment are still waiting for their break-out moment.

The latest data on business spending remains sluggish. Shipments of nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft edged up 0.5% in February, but that followed a 1.4% drop in January. The numbers suggest the business equipment sector is contributing almost nothing to first-quarter gross domestic product growth.

Moreover, the capex pipeline doesn’t suggest spending will pick up in the near future. New orders of core capital goods fell 1.3% in February, the second large decline in three months. Demand for machinery, communications equipment and electronics, appliances and parts declined in January and February.

Of course, weather may have skewed some of the most recent numbers. But shipments and new orders have been in a holding pattern for the past few months. That’s not a good sign for the capex sector.

Economists in general think the business sector will rev up their equipment purchases this year—and there is still plenty of time for the trend to improve. However, economists at J.P. Morgan write in a research note, “The latest data suggest those hopes may have been misplaced; while capex continues to expand at something close to a trend-like pace, there is thus far little evidence of an investment spending surge.”

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