U.S. Factory Goods Preview U.S. Factory Goods Preview: July factory goods orders are expected to be up 0.7% (median 0.7%) on the month with shipments up 1.2% and inventories up 0.1%. This compares to the already released durable goods data for the month which had orders up 2.0% with shipments up 1.0% and inventories unchanged. Data in line with this forecast would leave the I/S ratio down to 1.34 in July from 1.35 since April