U.S. Durable Goods Orders Surge Much More Than Expected In November

A report released by the Commerce Department on Monday showed new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods surged by much more than expected in the month of November. The Commerce Department said durable goods orders shot up by 5.3 percent in November after tumbling by 2.1 percent in October. Economists had expected durable goods orders to jump by 3.0 percent. The bigger than expected increase largely reflected a spike by orders for transportation equipment, which skyrocketed by 14.7 percent in November after plunging by 6.3 percent in October. Excluding the surge in orders for transportation equipment, durable goods orders climbed by 0.5 percent in November.

Orders, meanwhile, for core capital goods also exceeded modest expectations rising 0.7% in November. While that exceeded the 0.3% expectation, it did however come on the heels of a downward revision to the prior month's increase. Taken together, it is still a better than the expected outcome, but only modestly so. The primary drivers of orders activity over the past year or so have been categories that benefit from the tech build-out such as electrical equipment and computers & electronic components, both of which notched gains in November. Encouragingly though, orders for fabricated metals (+1.0%) and machinery (+0.5%) both showed that some of the old line categories are seeing some action as well.

Read more at Nasdaq

US Business Borrowing For Equipment Rises Over 5% In December, ELFA says

U.S. companies borrowed 5.9% more to finance equipment purchases in December than a year earlier, reaching the second-highest level ever, the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association said on Monday. New loans, leases and lines of credit signed up by companies in December were $10.6 billion on a seasonally adjusted basis, an increase from the prior month. "The data show that the equipment finance industry has not only weathered but thrived amid historic uncertainty," ELFA President and CEO Leigh Lytle said.

The ELFA CapEx Finance Index of leasing and finance activity is based on a 25-member survey, including Bank of America as well as the financing units of Caterpillar  Dell Technologies, Siemens AG, Canon and Volvo AB. The Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation's, ELFA's non-profit affiliate, confidence index reached an 11-month high of 64.6 in January, up from 58.3 in December. A reading above 50 indicates a positive business outlook.

Read more at The WSJ

Consumer Confidence ‘Collapsed’ To Lowest Level Since 2014 In January

The consumer confidence index, a measurement of how optimistic or pessimistic Americans feel about the economy, dropped to 84.5 in January from December’s revised-up reading of 94.2, down from a 100-point baseline set in 1986 and the measurement’s lowest level since May 2014 (82.2). That falls well below Wall Street’s estimates of 91.1, according to FactSet. Consumers’ views about current business conditions worsened through the month, with 17.9% of respondents indicating conditions were “good,” down from 19.8% in December, and 17.8% said conditions were “bad,” up from 17.6%.

Views of the labor market also deteriorated, as 23.9% of consumers said jobs were “plentiful,” down from 27.5% in December, and 20.8% said jobs were “hard to get,” up from 19.1% and the highest since February 2021. Fewer Americans believe their incomes will increase over the next six months, and even more expect fewer jobs to be available, according to the Conference Board. About 15.6% of consumers expect business conditions to improve, down from last month’s reading of 18.7%, and 22.9% expect conditions to worsen, up from 21.3%. Consumers appeared more cautious about plans for buying big-ticket items, such as cars and household appliances, and planned spending on services like health care and personal care also declined.

Read more at Wells Fargo

Middle East

• Israel Says It Has Retrieved Remains Of Final Gaza Hostage – BBC
• Israel Plans Large Camp For Palestinians In Southern Gaza, Retired General Says - Reuters
• U.S. Carrier Lincoln Arrives in Middle East Amid Iran Tensions - WSJ
• Iran Rejects UN Rights Resolution Condemning Protest Killings – France 24
• France, Germany, UK, US Urge All Parties To ‘Strictly Adhere’ To Syria Ceasefire – France 24
• New Iran Videos Show Bodies Piled In Hospital And Snipers On Roofs - BBC
• Activists Say Iran’s Crackdown Has Killed At Least 6,159 People, As The Country’s Currency Plunges - AP
• Russian Forces Begin Pulling Out Of Bases In Northeast Syria - AP
• Interactive Map- Israel’s Operation In Gaza – Institute For The Study Of War
• Map – Conflicts in the Middle East – Live Universal Awareness Map

Ukraine

• Russian Drones Kill 3 And Wound Children In Ukraine As Zelenskyy Urges Speedier Diplomacy – Reuters
• Troop Casualties in Ukraine War Near 2 Million, Study Finds - NYT
• US Has Told Ukraine It Must Sign Peace Deal With Russia To Get Security Guarantees, Source Says - Reuters
• Drones Caused 3 Out Of Every 4 Ukraine War Casualties - Politico
• Russia Offers Cash Bonuses, Frees Prisoners And Lures Foreigners To Replenish Its Troops In Ukraine - AP
• 'It's 2C In Our Flat': Inside Kyiv Apartment As Russia Targets Power And Heating - BBC
• Russia Traffics Bangladeshi Workers To Frontlines With Fake Job Offers - AP
• Interactive Map: Assessed Control Of Terrain In Ukraine – Institute For The Study Of War
• Map – Tracking Russia’s Invasion Of Ukraine – Live Universal Awareness Map

Other World Headlines

• Europe Can’t Defend Itself Without The US, NATO’s Rutte Warns – Politico
• Venezuela Oil Reform Encourages Immediate Investment, Still Needs To Go Deeper, Executives Say - Reuters
• France's National Assembly Approves Banning Under-15s From Social Media - Reuters
• IMF Chief Tells Europe To Drop The Doom Loop - Seven Of The 10 Best-Performing Economies In 2025 Were EU Countries - Politico
• Scandal Tests Peru’s China Ties As U.S. Scrutiny Intensifies - Reuters
• FIFA's Ex-Chief Sepp Blatter Joins Calls To Boycott World Cup Over Trump Policies – France 24
• Gunmen Storm Mexico Football Pitch And Kill At Least 11 People – Reuters

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Government Shutdown Watch: Shutdown Odds Rising

The odds of a government shutdown starting on January 31 have risen sharply. Polymarket traders price the odds of a shutdown starting this Saturday at roughly 80%. If a short shutdown occurs, this would delay but not cancel the BLS/BEA produced economic data that are slated to be released in the coming weeks, such as the January employment report (scheduled for Feb. 6) and the January CPI report (Feb. 11). That said, if the shutdown was much longer, like the one that just concluded in November, there once again could be severe disruptions that result in lower quality and/or missing data.

As was the case last fall, a shutdown starting Saturday would not impact the debt ceiling. The U.S. Treasury's borrowing capacity would not be exhausted, and Treasury security auction and interest payments would continue as scheduled. Should another extended shutdown occur, it would leave the FOMC in a tricky spot. The lack of visibility that arises from receiving limited economic data could thrust an already divided FOMC into a period of stasis. Fed officials lamented the lack of clarity on inflation during the last shutdown. We expect they would again use this argument to delay additional cuts. We have maintained that the window is closing for the Fed to cut rates again under Chair Powell, and another extended shutdown would not help.

Read more at Wells Fargo

EPA Moves Toward Changing Particulate Matter Standard As Manufacturers Urge Action

The Trump administration is moving closer to reworking a Biden-era standard for fine particulate matter that manufacturers have criticized as unachievable.  The U.S. EPA rule, which was finalized in March of 2024 and went into effect May 6 of that year, lowered the annual limit for PM 2.5 from 12 micrograms per cubic meter of air to nine. The new standard was intended to “protect public health with an adequate margin of safety” in accordance with the Clean Air Act. The EPA estimated at the time that the change could prevent 4,500 premature deaths and 290,000 lost workdays and yield $22 billion to $46 billion in benefits, while incurring an estimated $590 million in costs by 2032.

Industry groups warned that the stricter annual limit would force a wide range of key manufacturing industries — including cement makers, chemical manufacturers, steel mills, coal-fired power plants and battery manufacturers — to pull back on construction of new factories in many areas and would hurt the economy. Last March, just after President Donald Trump began his second term, the EPA announced it would revisit the PM 2.5 rule, along with 30 other environmental regulations. Last November, EPA attorneys filed a motion asking the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to vacate the standard. The Biden administration, they said, had taken a “regulatory shortcut” in adopting the tighter limit and did not conduct a thorough enough review. Biden’s EPA also failed to adequately consider the cost of complying with the new limit, the motion said.

Read more at Manufacturing Dive

Pattern for Progress Report: Home Prices Continued To Rise In All Nine Hudson Valley Counties

The Hudson Valley Housing Market in 2025 brought divergent trends for home prices and the total inventory of homes available on the market. The Hudson Valley hit another noteworthy milestone in 2025: the median cost of a home was $350,000 or greater in every county for the first time ever. All counties except Greene and Sullivan now have a median price over $450,000, and Rockland County’s median home price eclipsed $700,000 for the first time. Proportionally, our most rural counties (Columbia, Greene, and Sullivan) continued to experience the greatest price inflation as their year-over-year median prices all increased by 8% or more. The inventory of homes for sale on the regional market has increased. Approximately 1,350 more homes sold in 2025 compared to the previous year.

The year ended with a 6% increase in homes available on the market. Thousands of homes, most of them apartments, are being constructed across the region. Still, these numbers will require steady analysis as the housing market does not always follow traditional supply-and-demand economics. Many forces are pulling on the regional housing market. Remote work is likely exerting upward pressure on rural home prices. A greater number of retirees are likely putting their homes on the market. Some households have likely moved back to the NYC metro area after seeking refuge in our region during the pandemic. Later this year, Pattern will publish a landmark study to show the effects of corporate buyers and short-term rentals in our housing market

Read the Report at Pattern for Progress

Menopause Hormone Therapy May Boost GLP-1 Drug Benefits

Postmenopausal women on the GLP-1 medication tirzepatide (Zepbound) for obesity lost more weight if they were also using menopause hormone therapy, a retrospective cohort study indicated. Among 120 women with overweight or obesity on tirzepatide, hormone therapy users lost 19.2% of their body weight, while those not using hormone therapy treatment lost 14% (P=0.0023), reported Maria Daniela Hurtado Andrade, MD, PhD, of the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, and colleagues. "Women in the hormone therapy group lost 35% more body weight than those in the no hormone therapy group and showed notable improvements in key cardiometabolic parameters, supporting a potential enhancing effect of hormone therapy on tirzepatide's therapeutic effect," the researchers wrote in Lancet Obstetrics, Gynecology, & Women's Health.

Both groups had improvements in fasting glucose, HbA1c, HDL cholesterol, alanine aminotransferase, and systolic blood pressure, but hormone therapy users also had significant reductions in diastolic pressure, triglycerides, and aspartate aminotransferase. Total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol were stable in hormone therapy users and slightly increased in non-users.

Read more at MedPage Today

Upcoming Council Programs

Events

Manufacturing Advocacy Day - Tuesday February 24, 2026 -7:45 AM - 3:00 PM. The Fort Orange Club, State Capitol Building and Legislative Office Building, Albany.

Manufacturing Champions Award Breakfast - Thursday May 7, 2026 -7:45 - 10:00 AM. West Hills Country Club, Middletown.

Networks

Health & Safety Sub Council Meeting Topic TBD, February 12, 2026, 8:30 - 10:30. Location TBD

Insight Exchange On Demand Webinars

• Demand Response: A tool to reduce your energy costs and earn revenue - Presented by NRG

• See previous episodes here!

Webinars and Seminars

Check back soon

Training

Making a Profit In Manufactuirng This course is designed to provide supervisors and team leaders with the financial acumen essential for maximizing profitability and reducing operational risks. January 20 & 21, 8:30 - 12:30 Via Zoom.

Human Resource Management Issues This identifies and explains key legal issues that a manager may have to address in the workplace today. It helps current and future managers realize their responsibility to understand and enforce the employment laws that speak to these issues and minimize their chances of ending up in court. February 3 & 4, 8:30 - 12:30 Via Zoom.

Effective Business Communication This course is designed to build core communication skills essential in professional settings. Topics covered include identifying appropriate communication channels, honing active listening skills, and mastering techniques like paraphrasing, summarizing, and clarifying for better interpersonal communication. February 17 & 18, 8:30 - 12:30 Via Zoom.

FILLING FAST Lean Six Sigma Green Belt This program combines online coursework, with live Zoom sessions, to deliver a flexible and effective learning experience in Lean Six Sigma methodologies. Most Mondays March 2 - June 8 Via Zoom.

(Special Info session for those who are 'Green Belt curious' February 23rd)

Lean Six Sigma: Yellow Belt - Yellow Belt is an approach to process improvement that merges the complementary concepts and tools from both Six Sigma and Lean approaches. 3 Full days - March 10, 11 & 12 - DCC Fishkill.

Trade Wars

• EU And India Close Ranks Against Trump And Xi To Seal Trade Deal – Politico
• Trump Threatens To Hike Tariffs On South Korean Goods Over Inaction On Trade Deal - AP
• US Commerce-Aided Foreign Contracts Jump To $244 Billion In 2025 On Boeing Order Gains - Reuters
• US Losing Ground To China With ‘Onslaught’ On Cutting-Edge Research: Nobel Laureate – SCMP
• Global Metals Manufacturers Expanding Into US Via M&A – Manufacturing Dive
• Top US Trading Partners Pledged To Invest $5 Trillion In America. These Researchers Have Doubts. - AP

Century Aluminum Joins Emirates Global Aluminium US Project

Chicago-based Century Aluminum Co. is joining Emirates Global Aluminium in the latter company’s plan to develop a primary aluminum smelter in Inola, Okla. Their joint-development agreement foresees Century Aluminum owning 40% of the estimated $4-billion installation, which EGA announced last spring. The project now is planned to produce 750,000 metric tons/year of primary aluminum, 25% more than the original plan, and the partners anticipate starting construction of the plant later this year. Manufacturing would begin in 2029.

The new plant would be the first aluminum smelter built in the U.S. since the Sebree, Ken., smelter now owned by Century was built in 1980. Presently more than 80% of U.S. primary aluminum requirements are met by imports. U.S. primary aluminum capacity has declined to 1.36 million metric tons, and more than half of that volume remains idle due to global competition. Most of the world’s primary aluminum is produced in China – with its 43 million metric tons representing 57% of the global total. Other major producer nations are India (4.2 million mtpy), Russia (3.8 mtpy), United Arab Emirates (2.7 million mtpy), and Bahrain (1.6 million mtpy.)

Read more at Foundry Magazine

Boeing Cash, Sales Rise After Most Jet Deliveries Since 2018

Boeing reported a $2 billion profit, or $2.48 earnings per share, in 2025, a significant shift from the previous year, when the company was reeling from a midair fuselage blowout at the start of the year, as well as a Machinists strike at its Puget Sound factories, layoffs, and costly defense programs at the end of the year. In 2024, Boeing lost $11.8 billion, or $18.36 per share. In the fourth quarter of 2025, Boeing reported net income of $8.2 billion, or $10.23 earnings per share, compared with a loss of $3.8 billion, or $5.46 per share, in the last three months of 2024.

The quarter’s massive earnings increase was driven by Boeing’s sale of its flight navigation unit Jeppesen. The sale, announced in 2025, closed in the last quarter of the year and increased earnings by $11.83 per share, Boeing said Tuesday. Without the sale factored in, Boeing lost money per share. Revenue increased 34% year over year, from $66.5 billion in 2024 to $89.5 billion in 2025, and 57% quarter over quarter, from $15.2 billion in the last quarter of 2024 to $23.9 billion in the last quarter of 2025.

Read more at The Seattle Times

GM Beats Earnings Expectations, Boosts Dividend by 20%

GM reported a $3.3 billion loss in the fourth quarter of 2025 as a previously disclosed write-off mostly related to its struggling electric-vehicle business weighed on the company’s results. The U.S.’s largest automaker by volume still booked adjusted operating income that beat Wall Street expectations while announcing a 20% hike in its dividend and a stock-buyback program for up to $6 billion in additional shares. The automaker managed to expand its share of the U.S. market in 2025 while delivering $12.7 billion in adjusted pretax earnings, about $2 billion less than it originally projected before Trump’s tariffs were announced.

GM’s $2.8 billion in adjusted operating income in the quarter—which excludes the $7.2 billion in write-offs and special charges related to EVs and other items—beat analysts’ expectations of $2.75 billion, according to FactSet. The company also said it is on track for $13 billion to $15 billion in 2026 adjusted earnings, while forecasts had pointed to $13.7 billion.

Read more at The WSJ

Ransomware Attacks Set New Records In 2025, Hitting Manufacturing The Hardest

GuidePoint Security has reported record-high spikes in ransomware attacks in 2025, with a 58% year-over-year increase in victims of that popular kind of cyberattack, which still hits manufacturing the hardest. And most of the incidents occurred at the end of the year, in the fourth quarter, the company found. GuidePoint found that manufacturing, specifically in the U.S., was the sector most heavily impacted by ransomware, accounting for 14% of attacks. Technology and retail/wholesale followed closely behind.

Manufacturing had the most ransomware victims in terms of volume, accounting for 1,060—or 14%—of all observed targets of that kind of cyberattack. The most prominent groups perpetrating the attacks were Qilin, Akira and Play, GuidePoint found. December 2025 was the most active month for claimed ransomware victims on record with 814 successful attacks, a 42% year-over-year increase. Over 2,000 ransomware victims were posted in Q4 alone.

Read more at Smart Industry

Honda Dissolving Its Fuel Cell System Partnership With GM

Honda Motor Co. is ending production of fuel cell systems under its “Fuel Cell System Manufacturing” joint venture with General Motors by the end of 2026, the automaker announced in a Jan. 20 press release. The Michigan-based joint venture was established in January 2017 as the first-ever auto industry collaboration to produce lower-cost fuel cell systems using commonized parts suppliers and used by both automakers. At the time, Honda announced it was making an equal investment in the 50/50 joint venture with GM totaling $85 million.

Honda, which has been working on fuel cell technology for over 30 years, will develop its next-generation hydrogen-powered system internally, without a partner. The automaker says it will continue to pursue opportunities to grow its hydrogen business and make it a core segment within Honda in the future, per the release. The fuel cell system collaboration agreement between Honda and GM was first announced in July 2013. In October, GM also announced it was ending fuel cell development through its Hydrotec brand, as well as ending production of hydrogen fuel cells for data centers and power generation through the FCSM joint venture with Honda. The automaker said it was refocusing its R&D efforts and capital resources to develop EVs, batteries and new charging technology.

Read more at Ward’s Auto

Golden Dome Must Be Scalable, Affordable, General Says

Gen. Michael Guetlein, head of the Golden Dome missile defense program, said the success of this effort depends on the ability to field defenses that are both scalable and affordable, including new directed-energy and other non-kinetic technologies aimed at lowering the cost of intercepting missiles. Speaking Jan. 23, Guetlein said the program’s central challenge is the economics of missile defense, specifically how the cost of each intercept limits how many interceptor shots the United States can afford to keep on hand.

He described this as an issue of “magazine depth,” a term that refers to the number of interceptors available to respond to an attack. Missile defense systems with limited magazines can be exhausted quickly if an adversary launches multiple weapons or employs decoys. The thinking is that a system that can only handle a small number of intercepts does not provide credible deterrence. The “cost per kill” has to come down, said Guetlein. Current U.S. missile defense interceptors, which were designed for regional or limited homeland defense missions, cost millions of dollars apiece and are used to defeat much lower-cost weapons. Analysts have pointed out that this imbalance invites adversaries to overwhelm defenses through volume.

Read more at Space News

CPKC To Buy More Tier 4 Locomotives In $800M Investment

Canadian Pacific Kansas City railroad said it would invest another $800 million into American manufacturing with the purchase of more Tier 4 locomotives. The railroad said on the heels of its purchase of 100 Wabtec Tier 4 locomotives built in Texas last year, it will purchase an additional Tier 4 locomotives from Progress Rail in 2026. Those locomotives will be built in Indiana, the company said. Additionally, CPKC said it expects delivery of 70 more Texas-built Tier 4 units from Wabtec.

CPKC said it expects to receive the first two of 70 Wabtec Evolution Series ET44AC Tier 4 locomotive being built at the company’s Dallas, Texas, manufacturing facility this month. Later this year, it expects to take delivery of 30 new EMD SD 70Ace-T4 Tier 4 freight locomotives from Progress Rail’s Muncie, Ind., facility, part of a 65-unit order. The locomotive investments are part of the railroad’s locomotive renewal program and are part of CPKC’s previously announced multi-year capital plan.

Read more at Transportation Today

Nvidia Invests $2 Billion In CoreWeave To Boost Data Center Capacity

Nvidia has invested $2 billion in CoreWeave, becoming the AI infrastructure provider's second-largest shareholder, as the companies expand their partnership ​to boost data center capacity in the United States. So-called neocloud companies like CoreWeave, which provide tech ‌companies with the hardware and cloud capacity needed to build, run and deploy AI technologies, have seen a surge in demand in recent years as enterprise adoption of AI picks up.

The fresh investment from Nvidia will help CoreWeave speed ⁠up the procurement of land ‌and power required to build data centers. CoreWeave is targeting to build more than 5 gigawatts in AI data center ‍capacity by 2030. Once a cryptocurrency miner, CoreWeave has pivoted to capitalize ‍on the AI ⁠boom by repurposing its infrastructure to lease Nvidia GPUs to tech and AI firms.

Read more at Yahoo Finance

Raytheon Secures $381M Contract for Tomahawk Block V Upgrades

The US Navy has awarded Raytheon a $380.8-million contract modification to modernize and recertify Tomahawk Block IV cruise missiles to the Block V standard. The award confirms a contract announced in December 2024, bringing the total contract value to $476.5 million. It also expands the scope of work for Lot Five and Lot Six missiles destined for the US Army, US Marine Corps, Australia, and Japan. Introduced in 2021, the Block V family incorporates upgraded warheads, navigation, and communications to improve resilience against electronic countermeasures. The maritime strike variant, Block Va, adds a new seeker to engage moving surface targets.

The majority of the work will be performed in Tucson, Arizona (30 percent), and Boulder, Colorado (28 percent), with contract completion expected by April 2029. The contract encompasses depot-level recertification and modernization, along with associated hardware, spares, and rotable pool assets. At its core, the effort seeks to extend the service life of existing Tomahawk inventories at scale while adding capabilities to keep the missile effective in contested, electronically dense environments.

Read more at The Defense Post

Daily Market Update Jan 27, 2026

The Feb ’26 natural gas contract is trading down $0.27 at $6.53. The Mar ‘26 crude oil contract is up $0.98 at $61.61.

Read more at NRG

Learn more about the Council of Industry Energy Buying Group

Quote of the Day

“The things that we love tell us what we are.”

St. Thomas Aquinas - Italian Philosopher and Theologian who was born on this day in 1225.

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