Why The U.S. Durable Goods Report Just Surprised Markets (And What It Means For Your Portfolio)

Here’s what just dropped: U.S. durable goods orders beat expectations again in September, climbing 0.5% versus the 0.3% economists were calling for. August got revised higher too—now showing a 3.0% jump instead of the previously reported 2.9%.

Strip out transportation gear, and the picture gets even spicier: core durable orders surged 0.6% when analysts only expected 0.2%.

Why this matters:

• Strong manufacturing demand signals the economy’s still got juice despite Fed rate hikes
• Better-than-expected prints usually spark risk-on sentiment across markets (stocks, crypto, commodities)
• Manufacturing strength = potential inflation stickiness = rate hold signals

The setup: Two straight months of beat expectations shows U.S. industrial demand isn’t rolling over as quickly as some feared. That’s bullish for risk assets in the short term, but could also keep the Fed thinking twice about cutting rates aggressively.

Watch how markets react to this. Risk appetite plays usually flow into crypto within hours of positive macro data.