A report has shown that new orders for long-lasting US-made manufactured goods fell by 5.3% in January, the biggest drop in five months and more than analysts expected.
A key measure of business spending also declined, the Commerce Department report showed. Non-military capital goods orders excluding aircraft, a gauge of business investment, declined 1.4%.
The figures pushed the already battered dollar lower against the euro and the yen.
Orders in the transport category, which includes civilian and military aircraft, fell 13.4%, the largest drop since October 2006.
Excluding this volatile sector, the decline in durable goods orders was a more modest 1.6%. But excluding military-related orders, durables demand fell by a much larger than expected 4.7%.
Separate figures show that sales of newly built homes in the US fell by a steeper than expected 2.8% in January. The Commerce Department said sales of new homes fell to a seasonally adjusted rate of 588,000 last month, widely missing economists' consensus forecast of 600,000 units. The January sales pace was 33.9% below the January 2007 estimate of 890,000.
