Weekly Market Pulse: Machinery & Construction | North America

Research evidence excerpt

Weekly Market Pulse: Machinery & Construction | North America

Idea

June 22, 2026 01:29 AM GMT

Morgan Stanley & Co. LLCMMachinery & Construction | North America Angel Castillo

Equity Analyst

Weekly Market Pulse Angel.Castillo@morganstanley.comStefan Diaz, CFA +1 212 761-1931

Stefan.Diaz@morganstanley.com +1 212 761-1834

Construction starts higher on a value basis; Construction Oliver Jiang

backlogs up; Komtrax hours mixed; Pending Home Sales up ResearchOliver.Jiang@morganstanley.comAssociate +1 212 761-6458

MoM; Corn and Soybean rose WoW; ACT shows Class 8 builds Esther O Osinaiya

Research Associate

of just 21.8k in May (+3% MoM); May IP +0.1% slightly weaker Esther.Osinaiya@morganstanley.com +1 212 761-3176

than exp. Machinery & Construction

North America

Industry View Attractive

Construction: Dodge Nonresidential Construction Starts Increased +29% YoY

(+24% MoM) in May on a value basis. May's strength was largely driven by the

Office (+138% YoY, where data centers are reported) and Manufacturing (+76%).

Non-building starts advanced +105% YoY driven by Gas Systems +13,400% and

Electric Power and Heating Systems +121%. Gas System's strength was driven by the

$13.5B Commonwealth LNG export facility in Cameron Parish, LA. Conversely, on a

square footage basis, nonresidential starts were -5% YoY, driven by weakness in all

commercial categories outside of Office, partially offset by manufacturing (+163%).

Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) Construction Backlog Indicator

increased to 9.1 months in May, +0.3 months MoM and +0.7 months YoY. ABC

attributed the increase largely to data center investment, with contractors working

on data centers reporting 11.6 months of backlog vs. 8.6 months for those without

data center exposure.