The U.S.
Commerce Department announced on Friday that the durable goods orders declined
0.8 per cent m-o-m in September, following a downwardly revised 0.8 per cent
m-o-m drop (from flat m-o-m) in August.
Economists
had forecast a 1.0 per cent m-o-m fall.
According to
the report, the September decline was due to decreases in orders in 5 of 9
sectors, driven by transportation equipment (-3.1 per cent m-o-m) and capital
goods (-2.8 per cent m-o-m).
Meanwhile, orders
for durable goods excluding transportation increased 0.4 per cent m-o-m in August,
following an upwardly revised 0.6
per cent m-o-m advance (from +0.5 per cent m-o-m) in the previous month, being better than
economists’ forecast of a 0.1 per cent m-o-m drop.
Elsewhere,
orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, a closely watched
proxy for business spending plans, jumped 0.5 per cent m-o-m last month after an
upwardly revised 0.3 per cent m-o-m rise (from +0.2 per cent m-o-m) in August. Economists had foreseen a 0.1 per cent m-o-m uptick in core capital goods orders for September.
On a y-o-y
basis, durable goods orders fell 1.5 per cent, while orders, excluding
transportation, surged 1.2 per cent.