WASHINGTON — New orders for manufactured durable goods fell $8.6 billion, or 4.0%, to $206.1 billion in January, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.
The drop came after an upwardly revised 3.2% increase in December and was the largest drop since January 2009, when new orders plummeted 13.2%.
Excluding transportation, new orders fell 3.2% and excluding military orders, they dropped 4.5%.
Economists polled by Thomson Reuters projected a median 1.0% decrease in new orders for durable goods and no change for orders excluding transportation.
