By Matt Grossman

Orders at U.S. factories rose in March for a second straight month, according to Commerce Department data published Monday.

Factories recorded $630.4 billion of new orders for manufactured goods last month, a 1.5% increase, after orders climbed by 0.3% in February. Analysts polled by The Wall Street Journal had anticipated a 0.5% March increase.

Cars and aircraft carry a big weight in the data series, but even excluding transportation categories, orders rose by 1.6%.

Factories' shipments rose by 1.4% to $633.9 billion, and unfilled orders ticked higher by 0.1% to $1.541 trillion.

Write to Matt Grossman at matt.grossman@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

05-04-26 1029ET