Durable Goods Orders Fall 5.7% in March; Ex-Transportation Slip 1.4%

WASHINGTON — New orders for manufactured durable goods fell $13.1 billion or 5.7% to $216.3 billion in March, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.

The decrease followed a revised 4.3% uptick the previous month, originally reported as a 5.7% increase.

The March decline indicated a drop in transportation equipment orders, which plummeted $11 billion or 15% to $62.4 billion. Excluding transportation, new orders slipped 1.4%. Excluding defense, they dropped 4.7% after having risen the previous six months. Excluding aircraft, new orders rose 0.2%.

The March decline was more than twice as large as the dip expected by economists polled by Thomson Reuters, who had projected that durable goods orders would fall 2.8%. They had expected a 0.5% gain for new orders excluding transportation.

Durable goods shipments increased $1 billion or 0.4% to $230 billion in March. The climb followed a revised 0.7% climb in February.

Unfilled orders for durable goods fell $6.4 billion or 0.6% to $991.2 billion. That followed a revised 0.7% increase the previous month.

Inventories, which have risen in 17 of the past 18 months, were up $300 million or 0.1% to $377.2 billion in March. The gain followed a 0.4% advance in February and brought the inventory level to its highest since the series was first published on a NAICS basis in 1992.

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