New orders for manufactured goods in January increased 1.7% to $378.4 billion. Shipments rose 0.3%, unfilled orders increased by $0.1 billion following 15 consecutive monthly increases, and inventories increased 0.2% from December 2009.
Construction spending was $884.1 billion in January 2010, 0.6% below December 2009 and 9.3% below January 2009. Construction spending is 27.1% below its March 2006 peak.
New orders for manufactured durable goods in January 2010 increased 3.0% from December 2009, to $175.7 billion. Excluding transportation, new orders decreased 0.6% from the prior month, to $131.0 billion. Total shipments decreased 0.2% to $180.7 billion.
Sales of new single family homes in January 2010 fell 11.2 percent from December 2009 and were 6.1 percent below January 2009 to 309,000.
Building permits in January 2010 were 621,000, a decrease of 4.9% from December, but 16.9% above the January 2009 estimate. Housing starts rose 2.8% from the prior month, to 591,000. This was 21.1% above the January 2009 figure.
