US sales of big-ticket manufactured goods sank to their lowest level in three years in July as orders for civilian aircraft dropped sharply, government data showed today.
Analysts had been expecting July to see a steep downturn following June's spike in sales at aircraft giant Boeing. But the decrease was more than enough to reverse the gains recorded in June.
Durable goods orders have now been down for three of the last four months, possibly weighing on economic growth.
Total orders for durable goods fell 6.8% from June to $229.2 billion, the biggest one-month drop since August of 2014. Analyst had been expecting a fall of only six percent.
Year-to-date, however, orders were still five percent above the first seven months of 2016.
Civilian aircraft fell 70.7% for the month, after June's 129.3% gain.
Excluding the volatile transportation segment, however, orders rose 0.5%, the third monthly gain in a row.
The defence sector was July's strong point. Excluding defence goods, orders fell an even steeper 7.8%.
Orders for military aircraft rose 47.8% while defence capital goods gained 14.7%.
Pointing to a continuing recovery in the oil drilling sector, non-defence capital goods orders rose 0.4%.
Computers and electronic products also had their strongest sales in a year, adding 1.6%.
But sales of cars and car parts, which have had a weak first half of 2017, fell 1.2%, the largest monthly decrease since May of 2016.
