The Commerce Department reported that new orders for U.S. durable goods rose 6.5 percent m-o-m in June after a revised 0.1 percent decrease in the prior month (originally a 1.1 percent fall). That was the biggest surge since July of 2014. Economists had expected a gain of 3 percent. Meanwhile, non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business investment, fell 0.1 percent last month, after an upwardly revised 0.7 percent drop in May, representing the first drop since December. Economists had forecast core capital goods orders growing 0.2 percent in June. Shipments of those so-called core capital goods rose 0.2 percent in June after increasing 0.4 percent in May. Meanwhile, orders for durable goods excluding the transportation category edged up 0.2 percent in June after a revised 0.6 percent gain in the previous month (originally a 0.1 percent increase), while orders excluding defense boosted 6.7 percent last month after a revised 0.4 percent advance in May (originally a 0.6 percent decline).