WASHINGTON - Durable goods orders increased 0.3% in December, data released this morning by the Commerce Department showed. Though the headline figure was the first increase in the past three months, it was far below economists’ expectations.
The overall 0.3% increase in durable good orders followed a revised 0.4% decline in November, originally reported as a 0.2% rise.
Meanwhile, new orders for durable goods excluding transportation rose 0.9%, following a revised 2.1% increase in November that was originally reported as a 2.0% rise, Commerce said.
The 0.3% headline orders figure was far below a 2.0% increase predicted by a median estimate of economists polled by Thomson Reuters. But the 0.9% ex-transportation figure easily beat economists’ estimated 0.5% uptick.
