By Jeffry Bartash
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Orders for big-ticket U.S. goods fell 2% in October, largely because of fewer contracts for jumbo jets, but business investment was soft in most major industries. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected durable-goods orders to drop 2.2%. Stripping out the volatile transportation sector, orders fell a smaller 0.1%, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. Orders for core capital goods, a proxy for business investment, dropped 1.2% to mark the third decline in five months. Shipments of core capital goods, a category used to calculate quarterly economic growth, dipped 0.2% in October to match the decline in September. Total durable-goods orders for September, meanwhile, were revised up to show a 4.1% gain vs. a prior reading of 3.8%. In the first 10 months of 2013, orders for durable goods have risen a lackluster 4.8% compared to the year-earlier period. Core orders are up 4.1% in the same span.
