WASHINGTON — New orders for manufactured goods rose $3.8 billion or 0.8% to $477.6 billion in October, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.
The increase followed a revised uptick of 4.5% the previous month, originally reported as a 4.8% increase.
The gain outperformed the expectations of economists polled by Thomson Reuters, who predicted that orders would be unchanged from the previous month.
Excluding transportation, new orders rose 1.3%. Excluding defense, orders rose 0.8%.
Shipments of durable goods rose $1.9 billion or 0.4% to $482.3 billion in October, following a 0.7% increase the previous month.
Unfilled orders climbed $2.8 billion or 0.3% to $982.9 billion. That increase followed a 0.1% rise in September, and was the fourth rise of the past five months.
Inventories, which have risen in 33 of the last 34 months, increased $1.7 billion or 0.4% to $374.5 billion. The advance came after a 0.2% rise the previous month, bringing the total to its highest since the data was first published on an NAICS basis in 1992.
