New orders for US durable goods rose 1.8% in September 2026, according to figures released in the United States. The reading came in above the 1.5% market forecast. It also marked a clear step up from the previous period, when orders grew by just 0.1%.
What the figure measures
Durable goods are products meant to last three years or more, such as aircraft, machinery, vehicles and electrical equipment. Orders data tracks how much businesses have committed to buy in a given month, before any goods are delivered. Because these purchases are large and often planned well ahead, the series is watched as an early signal of how confident companies are about future spending and production.
A monthly rise of this size, set against a flat prior period, suggests that orders picked up. The figure is a single measurement and does not on its own show the reasons behind the change.
Against forecast and previous period
The 1.8% outcome was 0.3 percentage points above the market forecast of 1.5%. Compared with the previous period’s 0.1%, the new figure was higher by 1.7 percentage points.
