Reflecting a significant decline in transportation equipment orders, a report from the Commerce Department on Tuesday indicated that new orders for U.S. manufactured goods fell more sharply than anticipated in December.
The report revealed that factory orders decreased by 0.9 percent in December, following a downwardly revised decline of 0.8 percent in November. Economists had predicted a 0.7 percent drop in factory orders, compared to the initially reported 0.4 percent decrease for the prior month.
Contributing to the continued decline, orders for non-defense aircraft and parts saw a steep fall, with transportation equipment orders plunging by 7.4 percent in December after a 5.4 percent drop in November.
Excluding transportation equipment, factory orders experienced a modest increase of 0.3 percent in December, compared to a slight uptick of 0.2 percent in November.
The sharp decline in transportation equipment orders also impacted durable goods, which saw a 2.2 percent decrease in December following a 2.0 percent slump in November.
Conversely, the report noted that orders for non-durable goods rose by 0.3 percent in December, after a 0.4 percent increase in November.
Additionally, shipments of manufactured goods increased by 0.6 percent in December, following a marginal 0.1 percent rise in November. Inventories of manufactured goods grew by 0.4 percent in December, maintaining the same rate of increase as the previous month.
As shipments increased at a faster rate than inventories, the inventories-to-shipments ratio slightly decreased to 1.46 in December from 1.47 in November.
