FT Alphaville " Japan's machinery orders are (possibly) tankan Posted by Kate Mackenzie on Jul 09 10:48. This chart about Japan's machinery orders (from Scotty Barber) tells us two things: 14.8 per cent month-on-month is a big fall, historically. The "biggest drop since comparable data were made available in 2005″, says Bloomberg. The month-to-month reading can be noisy. For example, from Reuters: The government warned against reading too much into the highly volatile data series, saying the drop was exaggerated by seasonal factors and mostly a reaction to the previous month's rise, which was inflated by big, one-off orders from chemical and machinery makers. It also contrasts with last week's relatively optimistic Tankan survey for the June quarter. Related link: Japanese business mood improves - FT This entry was posted by Kate Mackenzie on Monday, July 9th, 2012 at 10:48 and is filed under Capital markets. Tagged with japan, machinery orders, tankan.