New orders for US durable goods plunged in March amid a sharp drop in commercial aircraft orders, government data showed today.
New orders of durable goods, defined as products designed to last at least three years, tumbled 4.2% from February, the Commerce Department reported.
The decline was much bigger than analysts' average forecast of a 1.7% drop.
A massive 47.6% drop in civilian aircraft orders, a highly volatile segment, drove the weak performance.
Excluding transportation orders, durable goods orders fell 1.1% in March, instead of the 0.5% increase predicted by most analysts.
The fall-off in orders in March was broad-based. Apart from transportation orders, which fell 12.5%, their steepest plunge since November 2010, the worst-performing segment was machinery orders, down 2.6%.
The disappointing March reading capped a wobbly first quarter for the manufacturing sector, a key pillar of the US economic recovery from a deep recession.
Durable goods orders fell sharply in January, by 3.5%, but rose a revised 1.9% in February. The first quarter, however, marked an improvement from a year ago, with durable-goods orders up 9.1%.
