US durable goods orders down more than expected in October

By Mucahithan Avcioglu

ISTANBUL (AA) - US new durable goods orders decreased 2.2% in October from the previous month, according to data released Tuesday by the Census Bureau.

New orders for manufactured durable goods, which measure the change in the value of new purchase orders placed with manufacturers, fell $6.8 billion to $307.4 billion in October.

This followed an upwardly revised 0.7% growth in the previous month and exceeded market expectations of a 1.5% decrease for October.

"Transportation equipment, also down following two consecutive monthly increases, drove the decrease by $7.2 billion or 6.5% to $103.9 billion," the bureau said in a statement.

Nondefense orders (-20.1% to $17.4 billion) and defense orders (-32.4% to $6.1 billion), aircraft orders, capital goods (-5.6% to $107.4 billion), and primary metals (-0.7% to $27.2 billion) also saw decreases in October.

However, orders for machinery (0.8% to $40 billion) and manufactured metal items (0.5% to $41.9 billion) were higher in October compared to the previous month.

Orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, a carefully monitored indicator of business spending plans, increased by 0.5%.

Excluding transportation, new orders were up 0.2%, and excluding defense, new orders decreased 1.5%.