U.S. construction spending fell 0.4 percent in September as nonresidential spending declines wiped out homebuilding gains during the month.
Construction spending is at a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of $1.150 trillion, according to preliminary data from the Commerce Department. With the September decrease, the spending rate is 0.2 percent below the September 2015 rate.
Spending in the private homebuilding sector rose 0.5 percent to $454 billion, and is 1 percent above the year-ago rate. Spending on the construction of single-family homes rose 0.1 percent during September to a rate of $236.5 billion, while multi-family housing spending rose 2 percent to $62 billion.
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Though the company continues to see sales declines in its agricultural equipment segment, CNH Industrial was able to report increased profit for the third quarter thanks to cost reductions and improved demand in certain markets.
The company, which manufactures the Case and New Holland brands of heavy equipment, reported a 1.7-percent sales decline in the 3Q to $5.7 billion. Profit rose 167 percent to $39 billion. (In 3Q 2015, the company reported a loss of $128 million.)
“Our third quarter results were consistent with our expectations,” said Richard Tobin, chief executive officer of CNH Industrial. “Despite the challenging demand environment in our agricultural equipment business we have been able to increase our comparable profit margin for the quarter in the segment as a result of proactive cost control measures, and improved equipment demand in Latin America. Our commercial vehicles business continues to gain market share in Europe as our new vehicle product launches continue to gain traction in the market.”
