Prior was 0.0%Ex-transport +0.5% vs +0.6% expectedPrior ex-transport +0.3%Ex-defense +2.2% vs +0.1% priorNon-defense capital goods orders ex-air +0.5% vs +0.7% expectedPrior +1.6%Durable goods orders have been chopping sideways for much of the past year and today's report is more of the same. it's a nice climb but it comes after months of stagnation. The core number is better but this data point is rarely a market mover, even ahead of a tricky Fed decision.On the washing machine front, Whirlpool reported earnings yesterday and they were dire, with shares falling 5% premarket to the lowest since the depths of the financial crisis. They're down 90% from the 2021 peak. The company has been in a brutal tailspin because of the deep recession in the US housing market. The company should be benefitting from tariffs but it can't seem to find traction and is now struggling under a heavy debt load.David Tepper took a big stake last year but blew out of it and I'm sure he's glad he did because the chart is horrible.For background, the US Census Bureau publishes its advance report on durable goods orders monthly at 8:30 am ET, roughly four weeks after the reference month ends. It covers manufacturers’ new orders, shipments, unfilled orders and inventories for durable goods, defined as products expected to last three years or more, such as machinery, vehicles, aircraft, appliances, computers and electrical equipment.The headline figure is the monthly change in total new orders, and it’s notoriously volatile. Commercial aircraft orders, driven largely by Boeing, are lumpy and can swing the headline by several percentage points in either direction in a single month. For that reason, markets look past the headline to orders excluding transportation, which strip out aircraft and motor vehicles. Defense orders are another source of noise.The most closely watched measure is core capital goods orders, formally nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft. It serves as a proxy for business investment plans, showing whether companies are committing to spend on equipment. Core capital goods shipments are equally important, because they feed directly into the equipment investment component of GDP, and economists often adjust their growth forecasts after the report.The advance figures are revised about a week later in the full factory orders report, which adds nondurable goods. Revisions can be significant, particularly for the volatile categories.The report rarely moves markets dramatically but can shift the outlook for capital spending. In recent years it has captured several cross-currents, including tariff front-running, supply chain reshoring and heavy investment in data center and power equipment tied to artificial intelligence. This article was written by Adam Button at investinglive.com.