By Jeffry Bartash WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Orders for big-ticket U.S. goods climbed 3.7% in September, mainly because of a snapback in demand for jetliners, but business investment softened outside of the transportation sector, the Commerce Department reported Friday. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected orders to rise a seasonally adjusted 3.0%, spurred by a sharp uptick in contracts signed by Boeing Inc. Airline orders soared 57.5% after just a 5.4% gain in the prior month. Stripping out the volatile transportation category, durable-goods orders dropped 0.1% and fell for the third straight month. Orders for core capital goods, a proxy for business investment, slipped 1.1%. That's the second drop in three months. Shipments of core capital goods, a number used to help determine how fast the economy grows each quarter, edged down 0.2% in September. Shipments decreased in two of the three months in the third quarter. Durable-goods orders in August, meanwhile, were revised up slightly to show a 0.2% increase. In the first nine months of 2013, orders for durable goods have risen 3% compared the same period a year earlier. Core orders are up mild 4.3% in the same span.

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