New orders for manufactured durable goods fell in April as aircraft orders shrank nearly a third from March, official data showed today.
Orders for durable goods - big-ticket items such as planes, computers and cars that are expected to last at least three years - dropped 3.6% from March, the Commerce Department said.
Excluding transportation, new orders were down 1.5% from March. Excluding defence, they were 3.6% lower. The decline was more than a percentage point bigger than expected by most analysts.
The Commerce Department revised the March increase in orders to a 4.4% rise. On a 12-month basis, durable goods orders were up 4% from April 2010.
Last month's reading was weighed down by the volatile transportation sector, where airplane orders can fluctuate widely from month to month. In April, orders for commercial aircraft plunged 30% from March, while defence aircraft orders fell 8.9%.
Manufacturing, a key driver of the US economic recovery from recession, has shown signs of losing steam in recent months.
