Purchasing slowdown: Orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket manufactured goods fell by the largest amount in 15 months with a key category that tracks business investment showing weakness for the third consecutive month. The Commerce Department announced this morning that orders for durable goods dropped 4.4% last month. The October drop was led by a huge decline in the volatile areas of commercial and military aircraft. The slowdown over the past few months has raised the specter that a widening trade war between the United States and China is causing U.S. companies to grow more cautious about committing resources to expand and modernize their operations. Read the full story.
Up in the air: Thanksgiving travelers got help from favorable weather in most of the U.S. on Tuesday, but flight delays piled up at airports around the country by day’s end. Wet and frigid forecasts threaten to made driving more challenging in the next day or two. By late Tuesday afternoon, fewer than 150 U.S. flights had been canceled—a low number all things considered. But 3,000 flights were delayed, according to tracking service FlightAware. The largest number of delays—about 400—was at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, where dense fog slowed the pace of departures and arrivals. Read the full story.
Mortgage changes: U.S. borrowers filed the fewest applications for home refinancing in almost 18 years last week even as mortgage rates drifted lower in step with U.S. bond yields, the Mortgage Bankers Association announced this morning. Reuters reports the industry group says its seasonally adjusted index on refinancing activity fell 5.% to 783.7 in the week ended Nov. 16. This was the weakest reading since December 2000. On the other hand, MBA’s seasonally adjusted measure on loan applications to buy a home rose 3.1% to 227.7 for its biggest weekly gain since the July 5 week. It fell to its lowest since February 2017 the week before. Read the full story.
