U.S. Durable Goods Orders Show Unexpected Decrease In December

(RTTNews) - With orders for transportation equipment showing a substantial decrease, the Commerce Department released a report on Tuesday showing that new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods unexpectedly dropped in the month of December.

The report said durable goods orders tumbled by 4.3 percent in December following a revised 2.6 percent increase in November.

The drop in orders came as a surprise to economists, who had expected orders to increase by about 1.8 percent compared to the 3.4 percent growth that had been reported for the previous month.

Excluding the steep 9.5 percent decrease in orders for transportation equipment, durable goods orders still fell by 1.6 percent in December after edging up by 0.1 percent in November. Ex-transportation orders had been expected to rise by 0.5 percent.