U.S. core factory orders tumble for third straight month

The factory orders were not great in April.

This is not necessarily surprising, considering the plethora of weak manufacturing PMI reports in the last few months.

According to the Census Bureau, headline factory orders rose 0.4 percent in April, down from the downwardly revised 0.6 percent gain in March. The market estimate suggested a 0.8 percent print.

Core factory orders, which exclude transportation, fell 0.2 percent in April, up from the downwardly revised one percent gain in March. This represented the third consecutive month of contraction and the fifth out of the last six months.

On an annualized basis, factory orders were roughly flat at 0.2 percent, and core factory orders were down 2.2 percent.

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