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Forex Fundamental Analysis

‘New Orders’ – Everything About This Economic Indicator & Its Impact

Introduction

New Orders are essential for economists, government officials, and investors alike. It is a direct indication of oncoming expansion or contraction in the economy. For investors, decisions regarding investment in different sectors are critical, and New Orders figures are perfect tools to gauge an increase or decrease in economic activities. Hence, understanding this economic indicator can help us predict economic prospects better in our Fundamental Analysis.

What is the “New Orders” number?

The New Orders is not in itself a separate report. Still, it is published as part of an overall report that details the performance of Manufacturing Industries in terms of the previous month’s and current business activity and prospective plans.

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The New Orders form the part of the report titled: “Manufacturer’s Shipments, Inventories, and Orders,” which is generally referred to as Factory Orders, published by the United States Census Bureau. It is also called the M3 Survey, which constitutes the New Orders Report that we are interested in. The overall report measures the performance of the industrial sectors by factoring in the total Shipments, New Orders, Order Backlogs, Total Inventory, etc. Hence, M3 Survey is a broad measure of economic conditions in the domestic manufacturing sector.

New Orders are reported in the dollar value of goods and services that have been ordered in advance. In the manufacturing sector, generally, orders are made months ahead of supply so that production can be planned and delivered accordingly. Hence, a New Order is conveying an objective to buy for immediate or future delivery from clients. New Orders report of M3 Survey includes all the manufacturing companies in the United States with more than 500 million dollars of annual shipments and specific selected smaller firms overall.

Also, Orders data for industries that have almost immediate deliveries are not recorded. Only the Orders which are supported by legal binding documents like a letter of intent, or signed contracts detailing booking of orders are included. The New Orders report all the New Orders received, excluding the canceled Orders for the previous month.

Special Consideration:

The word “New Orders” is also a component of the Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI) and Performance of Services Index (PSI), which are also used to gauge business activity through similar survey-based index development. The New Orders in these statistics are also similar to the one we are discussing in this section and differ slightly in methodology, participants of surveys, surveyors, seasonal adjustments, and specific calculations that are different for Service Industries. These New Orders are different from the ones reported by the Census Bureau. Hence, care must be taken not to confuse with similar terminologies in both surveys.

How can the New Orders numbers be used for analysis? 

In the life cycle of production and consumption of goods and services, New Order is the earliest indicator in the manufacturing sector. In this sense, it is an advanced or leading indicator of an increase in economic activity.

The M3 survey is extensively used by government officials to develop economic, fiscal, and monetary policies. The New Orders serve as a warning sign for the officials to support the manufacturing sector as any significant downturns can lead to economic contractions and even employee layoffs. Politicians are motivated to keep employment rates high to ensure their chances of winning during elections.

As illustrated in the plot of the New Orders graph, the shaded areas indicate a recession period where we can observe a significant decline in the New Orders figures well before the actual recession, which confirms the importance of this economic indicator. It is also important to note that the year to year fluctuations are due to seasonally unadjusted figures.

Impact on Currency

Since New Orders are leading indicators of economic growth, the corresponding impact on the currency may be visible only after a certain period, which can vary from 1 month to 6 months. It is also important to note that the percentage change in New Orders from the previous month is not amplified by inflation and is only due to an increase in New Orders.

It is also essential to understand that the New Orders are seasonal for many industries, and it is vital to take the Seasonally Adjusted figures for a more accurate indication of economic growth.

An increase in New Orders indicates an increase in economic activity, which is good for the country and correspondingly to its currency. Hence, the New Orders figure is a proportional indicator, and a decrease in New Orders for previous months indicates a slowdown or contraction of economic activity.

The influence of investment markets on the economy is significant, and hence investors closely monitor for economic signals through New Orders. A positive change in New Orders translates to a positive change in equity markets too.

Economic Reports

The United States Census Bureau publishes the monthly M3 Survey reports on its official website. The Bureau releases two press releases every month.

The first one is “Advance Report on Durable Goods Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories, and Orders,” which is available about 18 working days after every month.

The second one is “Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories, and Orders,” which includes durable and non-durable manufacturing and is available about 23 working days after every month.

Sources of New Orders Reports

Census Bureau’s Factory Orders report is available here. For reference, you can find the latest advance report of the Census Bureau here. We can find the New Orders for different economies with statistical representation here. The graphical plot of New Orders is available on the St. Louis FRED official website.

Impact of the ‘New Orders’ news announcement on Forex

Till now, we have discussed the New Orders fundamental indicator and understood it’s significance in an economy. New Orders measures the value of orders received in a given period of time. They are legally binding contracts between a consumer and a producer for delivering goods and services. New Orders help in predicting future industrial output and production requirements. Investors feel that the data does not necessarily gauge the growth in the manufacturing and so they do not give a lot of importance to the data during the fundamental analysis of a currency.

Today, let’s analyze the impact of New Orders on different currency pairs and observe the change in volatility due to the news announcement. The below image shows the New Orders data of Sweden, where we see there has been a huge reduction in the percentage of New Orders compared to the previous month. A higher than expected reading is considered as bullish for the currency while a lower than expected reading is considered as negative. Let us see how the market reacts to this data.

USD/SEK | Before the announcement:

The first pair we will be discussing is the USD/SEK currency pair, where the above image shows the position of the price before the news announcement. It is clear from the chart that the market is in a strong downtrend, and the price is presently at its lowest point. Technically, we will be looking for a price retracement to a ‘resistance’ or ‘supply’ area so we can join the trend. At this moment, we cannot take any position.

USD/SEK | After the announcement:

After the news announcement, the market moves higher initially, but due to the selling pressure from the top, the candle closes almost near its opening price. As the New Orders data was extremely weak for the economy, traders go ‘long’ in the currency and sell Swedish Krona in the beginning. But since the trend is down, sellers push the price lower, and the ‘news candle’ leaves a wick on the top. We still cannot take any position after the news release.

EUR/SEK | Before the announcement:

EUR/SEK | After the announcement:

The above images represent the EUR/SEK currency pair, where the characteristics of the chart are similar to that of the above-discussed pair. The market here too is in a strong downtrend signifying the great amount of strength in the Swedish Krona, as the currency is on the right-hand side of the pair. We can see in the first image that the currency pair is not very volatile, which means there will be additional costs (Spreads & Slippage) when trading this currency pair.

Hence, we should trade this pair if the news announcement ignites volatility in the market. After the news announcement, the price hardly reacts to the news data where it stays at the same point as it was just one candle before. Therefore, the news release does not have any impact on this currency pair, and there is no alteration to the volatility.

SEK/JPY | Before the announcement:

SEK/JPY | After the announcement:

Lastly, we will look at SEK/JPY currency pair and see if there is any change in volatility due to the news announcement in this pair. Before the news announcement, the market is in a strong uptrend indicating strength in the Swedish Krona. In order to join the uptrend, we should wait for the price to pull back at a’ support’ area, as the price is at the highest point, and then take position accordingly.

After the news announcement, the price initially falls lower owing to poor New Orders data, but it bounces exactly from the moving average and closes with a wick on the bottom. Hence, we can say that the news release has some impact on this pair, causing a fair amount of volatility after the announcement.

That’s about ‘New Orders’ and its impact on the Forex market after its news release. If you have any questions, please let us know in the comments below. Good luck!

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By Reddy Shyam Shankar

I am a professional Price Action retail trader and Speculator with expertise in Risk Management, Trade Management, and Hedging.

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