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Durable goods are just that: hard goods; they don't wear out quickly and can be used over and over again for at least several years. Think your car, TV, refrigerator or computer. These are certainly not disposable, one-time use items.
The opposite of a hard good is (surprise!) a soft good or, if you like, a non-durable good. These are products you use once, like your lunch at McDonald's, the gas in your car and the ugly sweater your grandmother bought you for your birthday. These items have an intended lifespan short of three years, or are consumed immediately.
Investors pay attention to the monthly durable orders report released by the Commerce Department around the end of each month. When durable goods are strong, it means that U.S. manufacturing is humming along, though economists tend to parse the numbers pretty closely. Big-ticket items can skew the overall results, since an order for, say, 75 Boeing 747s has a bigger impact than 75 iPods. Luckily, the data lets economists break down the sectors.
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Friday, May 09, 2008
Oil Stocks Break Lower With Broad Market
Jim Jelter
MarketWatch Pulse
SAN FRANCISCO -- Oil and gas stocks slipped at the open Friday, breaking lower with the broader market as AIG's $7.8 billion quarterly loss renewed concerns about the health of the U.S. economy, outweighing any lift from crude-oil's spike to $126 a barrel. Early trades sent the Amex Oil Index 0.7% lower to 1,518 points, with the relentless rise in crude prices weighing especially hard on refiners. The Amex Natural Gas Index was off 0.3% at 707.5 and the Philadelphia Oil Services Index shed 0.8% to 328.8 points.
Copyright © 2008 MarketWatch, Inc.
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