WASHINGTON, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- U.S. durable goods orders fell in October for the second consecutive month, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.
New orders for U.S. factories fell by 0.7 percent in the month, off $197.7 compared to September, when orders fell 1.5 percent compared with August.
Orders rose 0.7 percent, however, with transportation orders excluded and rose 0.2 percent with defense orders excluded.
Transportation orders dropped by $2.4 billion or 4.8 percent to $47.2 billion, making it the largest drop among industrial categories.
Transportation is isolated from the data as the big ticket items of planes, trains, ships and trucks can quickly skew the data.
U.S. plane maker Boeing, for example, recently said it landed the largest order in its history in terms of money value -- an $18 billion Emirates Airline order for 50 planes. But the announcement was made in early November, so it was not included in Wednesday's report.
