Washington, DC, August 24--Orders for durable goods dropped 4.9 percent in July, for the biggest decline since January 2004, after a 1.9 percent rise in June, according to a Commerce Department report.
Economists were expecting a decline of 1 percent in July.
Excluding transportation, which is volatile month to month, orders fell 3.2 percent, the biggest drop since April 2004, after a 3.6 percent rise in June.
Orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, a proxy for future business investment, declined 3.7 percent last month after rising 4.8 percent in June.
Shipments of such equipment, which the government uses to construct quarterly gross domestic product figures, fell 0.5 percent after falling 0.2 percent.
Spending on new equipment and software rose at an 11 percent annual rate from March through June after an 8.3 percent pace in the previous quarter, according to the latest government figures on economic growth.
Inventories of durable goods rose 0.6 percent after falling 0.4 percent. Unfilled orders, a gauge of future production, increased 1 percent after rising 2.8 percent.
