Core durable goods orders continue to flat line/Philly non-mfr'g still negative

Core durable goods orders in February were a touch above expectations when we include the downward revision to January. We might though see a trimming of Q1 GDP estimates as core shipments were light with an unexpected drop in February of 4 tenths vs the estimate of up one tenth.

The internals were mixed with a lift in orders for vehicles/parts after a combined decline in the two prior months. Orders rose for machinery too but after 4 months of declines. After the drop in January, orders for metals rose. After the rise in January, orders for computers/electronics and electrical equipment was lower.

I’ll chime in for a second on IT spend based on what I’ve heard from the tech related conference calls over the past month. Stating the obvious, there has been an enormous rise in spend on anything AI related but what we’re seeing is the IT spending pie though is not really growing much as there is more of shift in spend from other things in order to pay for AI stuff.