These do tend to be volatile figures, but that July low was the worst monthly performance since the early pandemic cratered durable goods orders (April 2020). Non-defense, ex-aircraft goods orders — a proxy for “normal” business spending, excluding some of the biggest purchases which could distort patterns — blossomed way up to +0.9% from the +0.1% analysts were expecting. The PCE is the Fed’s preferred gauge for inflation, and anything that brings us roughly 1.5% below peak levels we saw a year and a half ago should be good for the economy.