The Manufacturing Recession That Won’t Go Away: Factory Orders Rebound From 5 Year Lows, Decline For 17 Months

In 60 years, the US economy has never suffered a 17-month continuous YoY drop in Factory orders without being in recession. Which begs the question: are we in one now. Moments ago the Department of Commerce confirmed that in March, US factory orders – despite rising 1.1% sequentially and above the 0.6% expected –  declined for 17th consecutive month on an annual basis, dropping 4.2% from a year ago.

The silver lining: at $458 billion, the dollar amount was a modest rebound from February’s downward revised $453 billion, which as we noted last month was the lowest print in the past 5 years.