WASHINGTON, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- The U.S. Commerce Department said new orders for durable goods rose higher than expected in September, but fell with transportation taken out of the data.
Without the big-ticket items of planes, trains and ships, orders dropped 0.8 percent. Transportation orders, up for two of the past three months, rose 15.7 percent or $7.4 billion to $53.8 billion, the department said.
In effect, orders for airplanes carried the month, increasing 72.4 percent, including orders for commercial and defense aircraft.
Overall, with transportation items, durable goods orders rose 3.3 percent or $6.3 billion to $199.2 billion, far better than the 2 percent gain economists had expected.
Factory shipments for durable goods fell 0.4 percent to $197.4 billion after falling 1.4 percent a month ago. Shipments of computers and electronic products led the decline, dropping 2.3 percent to $33.4 billion.
Durable goods inventories rose 0.5 percent to $314.7 billion in the month, climbing for the ninth consecutive month.
