Japan: Core machinery orders weak in June – Nomura

According to analysts at Nomura, Japanese machinery order statistics for June 2018 were weak on the whole as core machinery orders (private sector, excluding orders for ships and from electric power companies) fell 8.8% m-m in June, for a result well below the consensus forecast (Bloomberg survey median) for a 1.0% decline.

Key Quotes

“Orders from the manufacturing sector fell 15.9% and orders from the nonmanufacturing sector fell 7.0%, for a weak result in both cases.”

“Core machinery orders rose 2.2% y-y in the Apr-Jun period, with this an artifact of the sharp rise posted for standalone April.”

“Orders thus continued to rise but nevertheless showed a slowdown from the rise of 3.3% posted for Jan-Mar.”

“A breakdown of the Apr-Jun result by sector shows orders from the manufacturing sector rising 5.5% and orders from the nonmanufacturing sector falling 0.4%, with firm order trends quite pronounced in the manufacturing sphere.”