Washington, October 27—Durable goods orders were up last month thanks in part to a huge increase in orders for communications equipment, but the increase still fell shy of economists' expectations.
The Commerce Department said Wednesday that orders for durable goods, or products meant to last three years or more, increased 0.2% to $195.7 billion in September after a revised 0.6% decline in August. Orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, a barometer of business spending, rose 2.6% after an 0.3% increase in August.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires and CNBC had predicted orders would gain 0.6%. Ahead of the report, analysts had noted a recent trend for durable-goods orders to rise sharply in the last month of the quarter. But the durable-goods data are some of the most volatile reported by the government and forecasters are thus wary of using monthly fluctuations to get a read on the overall state of the economy.
Slower inventory building and decreased shipments suggests that growth in the factory sector may be cooling slightly. Durable-goods inventories went up just 0.3% in September and shipments eased 1.2%.
Unfilled orders rose 0.7%. Orders for computers and electronics rose 9.3%., while capital-goods orders rose 3.5% following a 6.2% decline in August.
Nondefense capital goods, or items meant to last a decade or longer, were up 0.6%. Orders for primary metals slumped 2.2%, and orders for fabricated metal products fell 2.0%. Transportation orders fell 3.6%, reflecting a 1.7% drop in orders for motor vehicles and parts and a 16.3% plunge in orders for non-defense aircraft.
