U.S. durable-goods orders fall 5.2% in January
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – Orders for big-ticket U.S. goods slumped 5.2% in January because of sharp declines in bookings for commercial and defense aircraft, but orders minus the volatile transportation sector rose for the fifth straight month, the government reported Wednesday. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected orders to drop 5.0%. Stripping out the herky-jerky transportation sector, orders climbed 1.9%, the fastest rate in more than a year, according to Commerce Department data. Orders for machinery were particularly strong, climbing 13.5%, but demand for autos was flat and bookings for computers fell. Orders for core capital goods, a key barometer of private-sector business investment, jumped 6.3% to mark the largest rise in more than two years. Yet shipments of core capital goods, a category used to calculate quarterly economic growth, dipped 1.0% in January. Orders for December, meanwhile, were revised down to a 3.7% increase from a prior reading of a 4.3% gain.