Daily Times

A steep drop in US auto sales and a second straight month of declining orders for civilian aircraft held down sales in the US manufacturing sector in May, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.

The crucial auto sector, which is now vulnerable to retaliation by US trading partners in President Donald Trump’s emerging trade war, had its steepest monthly decline in more than three years.

And orders for US-manufactured primary metals also fell despite the tariffs Trump imposed in May on steel and aluminum.

The May decline marked two months of falling sales and could weigh on GDP growth in the second quarter.

Still, orders were nearly 10 percent higher than their level in May of last year. And analysts said upward revisions to April’s figures made May sales decline look worse than it otherwise might have.

Total orders for large, US-manufactured items fell 0.6 percent for the month to $248.8 billion, slightly better than the one percent drop that analysts were expecting.

Published in Daily Times, June 28^th 2018.