Durable Goods Orders Fall in October

Washington, DC, Nov. 25, 2009--Orders for costly factory goods fell unexpectedly in October.

The Commerce Department said Wednesday that orders for expensive manufactured goods dropped 0.6 percent last month, following a 2 percent gain in September. It marked the first decline since August.

But much of October's weakness came from an 18.4 percent drop in orders for goods related to defense. Excluding those, orders for other types of manufactured goods rose 0.4 percent in October, following a 1.8 percent rise in September.

Still, the performance was weaker than economists expected. They were forecasting orders for durable goods to grow 0.5 percent.