According to ActionForex, analysts at Wells Fargo Securities note that despite sky-high readings from surveys of manufacturers, the hard factory data continue to come in short of expectations. 

"Durable goods orders rose just 0.5% in March which was well short of consensus expectations for a gain of 2.3%. The fact that February durable goods figures were revised to show a smaller decline than initially reported takes some, but not all, of the sting out of it. A drop in orders in categories not closely tied to near-term business spending, like aircraft as well as defense, account for much of the shortcomings."

"Excluding transportation categories, durable goods orders was bang-on expectations for the month, up 1.6% in March and the initially reported 0.9% decline for this category last month was cut by two-thirds to a decline of just 0.3%. After accounting for revisions then, ex-transportation orders increased a bit more than expected."

"Core capital goods orders, which exclude aircraft and defense, rose “only” 0.9% in March, barely overcoming February’s drop. Yet that still puts core capex orders up an impressive 10.2% since February 2020. Equipment spending is expected to slow in Thursday’s Q1 GDP release, but with nondefense capital goods shipments bouncing back 1.9% in March, business investment is still on track to grow at a double-digit pace."

"While the factory sector continues to contend with the unique growing pains caused by a global pandemic, the underlying momentum in manufacturing remains strong. Hiring picked up in March, with factories bringing on an additional 53K workers in a sign strength is expected to continue, and the early April purchasing manager indices have done just that."