U.S. businesses cut back on orders for airplanes, autos and heavy machinery in June, lowering demand for factory goods for the second time in three months. The US Commerce Department says orders to factories fell 0.8 per cent in June. A key category that tracks business investment plans managed a small increase, offering a positive sign amid other gloomy reports on the economy.
High energy prices and supply disruptions caused by Japan crisis have slowed manufacturing this spring, along with the broader economy.
Overall demand for US factory goods fell to $440.7 billion in June. Thats 31.2 per cent higher than the low point during the recession reached in March 2009.
Manufacturing had been one of the strongest areas of the economy since the recession ended, but activity has slowed this spring.
US factories had their weakest growth in two years in July, according to the Institute for Supply Management. The private group of purchasing executives said its index fell to 50.9, the lowest reading since July 2009. Any reading above 50 indicates expansion.
Analysts expect manufacturing and the overall economy to pick up in the second half of the year once energy prices stabilize and Japanese factories resume normal production, but that is unlikely if consumers remain worried about the economy slipping back into another recession.
U.S. consumers cut back on spending in June for the first time in nearly two years while their incomes grew by the smallest amount in nine months. Consumer spending fuels about 70 per cent of US economic growth.
Businesses are also concerned and have responded by reducing hiring. The US economy added just 18,000 jobs in June, the fewest in nine months, and the unemployment rate is 9.2 per cent, the highest all year. The US government will issue the July figures Friday.
The overall economy expanded at a 1.3 per cent annual rate in April-June quarter after only 0.4 per cent growth in the first three months of the year. That was the slowest six-month period six the recession ended two years ago.
Many economists believe US economic activity will accelerate only modestly in the second half of the year. Some predict growth of around 2.5 per cent in the final six months. That would be far below the pace needed to make a significant dent in the unemployment rate.
