By Jeffry Bartash
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Orders for big-ticket U.S. goods rose 3.3% in April, led by higher demand for aircraft, military wares and autos. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected orders to rise 1.4%. Stripping out the volatile transportation sector, orders a smaller 1.3%, the Commerce Department said Friday. Orders for core capital goods, a key barometer of private-sector business investment, climbed 1.2% and marked the second straight gain. Yet shipments of core capital goods, a category used to calculate quarterly gross domestic product, fell 1.5% in April, setting up the second quarter to show weaker growth compared to the first three months of the year. Orders for March, meanwhile, were revised up to a 5.9% decline from a prior reading of a 6.9% drop. In the past four months, orders for durable goods have risen an unadjusted 0.7% compared to the same period in 2012. Core orders are up 1.8% on the same basis.
