Industrial Growth | Fourth Quarter 2015

February 2016 – The fourth quarter did not end well for the industrials sector as many key fundamentals reported sharp declines. Importantly, factory orders (-2.9%), orders for both durable (-5.0%) and non-durable (-0.8%) goods, and core capital goods (-4.3%) all declined due primarily to weakness in oilfield machinery as well as communications equipment. Capital spending for the quarter fell at an annual rate of 1.8%, representing the first such decline since Q3 2012. Headline swings in industrial order data are not unusual, but many of the recent details here point to…

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