The U.S. Commerce Department reported on Monday that the durable goods orders rose 2.1 percent m-o-m in July, following a revised 1.8 percent m-o-m surge in June (originally a 2.0 percent m-o-m gain). That was the fastest rate of growth since August 2018.

Economists had forecast a 1.1 percent m-o-m increase.

According to the report, orders for durable goods excluding transportation fell 0.4 percent m-o-m, following a revised 0.8 percent m-o-m advance in June (originally a 1.2 percent m-o-m advance) and missing market expectations of a flat m-o-m performance.

Orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending plans, rose 0.4 percent m-o-m in June, after increasing 0.9 percent m-o-m in June (revised from +1.5 percent m-o-m). Economists had called for no change in core capital goods orders in July.

Shipments of these core capital goods dropped 0.7 percent m-o-m in July after a revised flat m-o-m performance in the prior month (originally a 0.5 percent m-o-m climb).