Latest Manufacturing Data Shows Acceleration That Can Boost 2 New Holdings
After adding our two newest positions, let’s discuss some key data we’ll be following.
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With the Portfolio’s position in heavy and medium duty truck company Paccar (PCAR) and, as of Monday morning, Boeing (BA), on top of the economic data points already closely followed, we’ll be adding a few more to the mix.
One of them is the monthly industrial production report with an emphasis on what it says about manufacturing production. The other is durable orders, and what it shows for transportation equipment and nondefense aircraft new orders.
May Industrial Production and Manufacturing Production
As it happens, the May Industrial Production report was published earlier on Monday, and the headline figure rose 0.1% month over month, short of the market’s 0.3% forecast. However, when we view the data set on a year-over-year basis, we see the following acceleration in the data:
- March 2026: 0.6%
- April 2026: 1.4%
- May 2026: 1.7%
Going one layer deeper, we see a similar pattern for manufacturing production:
- March 2026: 0.5%
- April 2026: 1.3%
- May 2026: 1.4%
That matches the improvement we’ve seen in monthly PMI data from ISM and S&P Global. The pickup in manufacturing activity also speaks to the pickup in freight volumes reflected in the monthly Cass Freight Index data we discussed earlier on Monday morning.
Durable Orders
The May Durable Orders figures will be published on June 25, and when we review the report, we’ll be reviewing the totality of the data but place some extra emphasis on orders and shipment figures for non-defense aircraft and parts. Granted, Boeing releases rather detailed data monthly, including orders, deliveries and backlog, but there is nothing wrong with cross-checking things.
When we do look at that durable order and shipment data for non-defense aircraft and parts, like we do with inflation and other data, we’ll be viewing it through the lens of a three-month moving average. The reason for that, and it is one you can see above, is that there can be wide swings month to month in the figures.
We’ll also track airline capital spending plans, other sources of production data and comments from key suppliers like Spirit Aerosystems (SPR), Hexcel Corp. (HXL), GE Aerospace (GE) and RTX Corp. (RTX), which owns Rockwell Collins, the company that acquired aircraft passenger interior products (seats and toilets) company BE Aerospace in 2017.
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At the time of publication, TheStreet Pro Portfolio was long BA and PCAR.
