Five Charts to Help You Understand Tuesday's U.S. Economic Data

Tuesday was a busy day for U.S. economic data, with orders for business equipment unexpectedly declining in January for a second month and consumer confidence vaulting to a 17-year high. Reports also showed solid home-price gains, the widest merchandise-trade deficit since 2008 and a jump in inventories. Here are five charts to help you sort through the numbers:

After an investment surge in the second half of 2017, companies are beginning to throttle back. January orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, a proxy for business investment, dropped 0.2 percent, bringing the three-month annualized growth rate to 3.7 percent, government figures showed. Shipments of those goods, used to calculate gross domestic product, climbed at an 8.3 percent pace in the three months ended in January and compares with a 12.5 percent rate in December. Nonetheless, economists remain upbeat about the landscape for investment spending on the heels of reduced tax rates and increased business optimism.