WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Businesses remain skittish about making big investments: Orders for durable or long-lasting U.S.-made goods such as computers and heavy machinery softened again in November.
Orders for durable goods were flat last month following a 2.9% increase in October, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. And they would have fallen a sharp 1.5% if not for an large increase in orders from the Pentagon.
In some industrial segments demand was robust. Orders for new cars and trucks, for example, rose 1.5%. That increase was more than offset by a 22.2% drop in bookings for commercial jets.
Omitting autos and aircraft, whose bookings are unpredictable from month to month, orders minus transportation fell 0.1% in November.
A key measure of business investment, meanwhile, faltered again. Orders for so-called core capital-goods, which strip out aircraft and defense, dropped 0.4% in November after two straight gains.
What’s more, business investment has fallen 1.8% over the past 12 months, keeping the economy from reaching its full growth potential. A strong dollar and soft global economy has hurt American exporters while cheap oil has forced huge spending cuts by domestic energy producers.
Shipments of core capital goods, a category used to help determine quarterly economic growth, fell 0.5% in November and declined for the second straight month.
