The U.S. Commerce Department reported on Thursday that the durable goods orders rose 2.0 percent m-o-m in June, following a revised 2.3 percent m-o-m drop in May (originally a 1.3 percent m-o-m decline). That was the fastest rate of growth since August 2018.

Economists had forecast a 0.8 percent m-o-m increase.

According to the report, orders for transportation equipment (+3.8 percent m-o-m) drove the increase. Meanwhile, orders for durable goods excluding transportation rose 1.2 percent m-o-m, following a revised 0.5 percent m-o-m advance in May (originally a 0.3 percent m-o-m advance) and beating market expectations of a 0.2 percent m-o-m gain.

Orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending plans, surged 1.9 percent m-o-m in June, after increasing 0.3 percent m-o-m in May (revised from +0.4 percent m-o-m). Economists had forecast core capital goods orders advancing 0.1 percent m-o-m in June.

Shipments of these core capital goods went up 0.6 percent m-o-m in June after a revised 0.5 percent m-o-m gain in the prior month (originally a 0.7 percent m-o-m climb).