Drop is less than expected; weakness in transportation goods cited
Orders for U.S.-made durable goods showed better-than-expected results during November, according to Commerce Department figures released Wednesday.
Orders for the big-ticket items fell 1% last month, the agency estimated, as orders for transportation goods sank 7.4%.
Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected an overall decline of 3%.
Excluding transportation, the month's orders rose 1.2%.
New orders for durable goods in October were revised to a decline of 8.4%, compared with a prior estimate of a 6.9% drop.
Orders for core capital equipment -- the kind of investments businesses make to expand or update their productive capacity -- rose 4.7% in November, reversing a 6.6% decline in October.
Meanwhile, shipments of durable goods during November fell 2.6%, on the heels of a 3.4% decline in October. Excluding transportation, shipments declined by 2.4% and 2.7% for the respective months.
Analysts had been expecting poorer results for November because recent manufacturing gauges in the U.S. and abroad have shown sharp contractions. There's been concern that business spending has been hamstrung by tight availability of credit, persistent turmoil in the financial markets and overall economic uncertainty.
