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Aircraft orders and AI spending keep US factory demand climbing
Durable goods orders rose 1.8% in September as jet demand and AI server purchases kept business investment strong
American factories got another vote of confidence in September. Durable goods orders rose 1.8% for the month, carried by a jump in aircraft demand and a steady flow of spending on AI hardware.
The total reached $345.4 billion, an increase of $6.3 billion from August, and it came in above analysts’ expectations.
Planes did the heavy lifting
Transportation equipment was the headline driver. Orders in that category climbed 4.6% in September.
Inside that number sat the real outlier. Orders for nondefense aircraft and parts surged 28.4% in a single month.
That is why economists also watch a narrower gauge. Core capital goods orders strip out defense and aircraft to show what ordinary businesses are spending on equipment.
That measure rose 0.5% in September. It followed a 1.6% gain in August, so the category held most of its prior strength instead of giving it back.
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Shipments of core capital goods did even better, rising 1.2%.
The AI buildout shows up in the order book
Orders for computers and related products, a group that includes servers, storage devices and peripherals, rose 27% from a year earlier, per Axios. That included a gain of nearly 4% in September alone.
A broader category, computers and electronic products, also grew. It rose 0.8% month-over-month and roughly 16.6% year-over-year.
A deep backlog points to staying power
Unfilled orders, the backlog of goods ordered but not yet delivered, climbed to $1,623.6 billion.
What this means for markets and the economy
The shipments figure carries particular weight for the broader economy. Equipment that ships counts as business investment, and a 1.2% rise could feed into healthier growth readings for the quarter.
The aircraft side has its own quirks. A 28.4% monthly jump can reverse just as fast if a large batch of orders does not repeat the following month.
Watch the core capital goods series and the computer categories closely, since they will reveal whether the boom is broadening or simply running on one powerful engine.