New orders for defense aircraft fell -72.7% in November, dragging overall new durable goods orders down by -2.0%, their biggest decline since May. Overall transportation orders were down -5.9%, with the end of the GM strike bringing motor vehicle orders up +1.9% to somewhat offset the drop in defense aircraft orders and an additional -1.8% drop in civilian aircraft orders. Orders excluding transportation were unchanged at $163.4 billion, while orders excluding defense were up +0.8% to $231.7 billion. Orders increased for electrical equipment/appliances (+2.0%), fabricated metal products (+0.4%), and computers and electronic products (+0.2%), and fell for manufacturing (-3.2%), machinery (-1.6%), and primary metals (-0.3%).

New home sales for November were up +1.3% at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 719,000 after October’s sales were revised downward from 738,000 to 710,000. Sales were up +16.9% annually, with the largest gains in the West (+47.9%), followed by the South (+9.0%), and the Northeast (+6.7%), and falling -1.4% in the Midwest. The supply of homes available for sale dropped to 5.4 months compared to 6.5 months in November 2018, and the median sale price was $330,800. The percent of sales for homes priced $400,000 or more rose from 30% in October to 36%, and sales of homes priced $200,000 - $399,999 dropped from 60% to 55%.

Crude oil supplies fell a larger than expected -5.47 million barrels over the past week, ending at the same level they were a year previously. The unexpected drop pushed crude prices to their highest level since September, with the average futures price up +$0.37 to $60.44/barrel for the week, and up +$14.85/barrel for the year. Gasoline futures ticked up +$0.043 for the week, and were up +$0.388 over the year, while prices at the pump dropped -$0.004 to an average $2.532, with a yearly gain of +$0.211.