The Commerce Department reported a notable 5.0 percent increase in factory orders for July 2023, rebounding from a 3.3 percent decline in June.

This rise in new orders for U.S.-manufactured goods surpassed economists' expectations, who had projected a smaller increase of 4.7 percent.

A significant contributor to this growth was a remarkable 34.7 percent surge in transportation equipment orders.

Additionally, defense aircraft and parts orders experienced a 12.9 percent increase, recovering from a 4.8 percent drop in June.

Durable goods orders also saw a substantial jump of 9.8 percent in July, following a 6.9 percent drop in the previous month.

Excluding transportation, factory orders still increased by 0.4 percent in July, maintaining a slight rise from June's 0.1 percent gain.

This overall increase indicates a significant rebound in the manufacturing sector after the previous month's decline.

Despite challenges posed by higher borrowing costs, business investment in equipment showed double-digit growth in the second quarter.

Revised data indicated a robust 42.0 percent rebound in non-defense capital goods orders, slightly up from an initial estimate of 41.9 percent.

Shipments of non-defense capital goods also increased by 4.9 percent, a revision from the earlier estimate of 4.7 percent, positively impacting GDP calculations.

However, shipments of core capital goods saw a minor decrease of 0.3 percent, which was slightly better than the previously reported 0.4 percent decline.

The inventories-to-shipments ratio decreased to 1.45 in July from 1.46 in June, indicating that shipments grew faster than inventories.