Japan's core machinery orders unexpectedly rose in October, climbing for a second straight month, data showed on Thursday, but remained down year-on-year as uncertainty about the global economy pared companies' appetite for fresh investments.
Core orders, a highly volatile data series regarded as a leading indicator of capital spending in the coming six to nine months, were up 0.7% in October from the previous month, Cabinet Office data showed.
That compared with the median forecast for a 0.5% decline by economists in a Reuters poll.