A Commerce Department report released on Tuesday revealed an unexpected and significant decline in new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods for December, primarily driven by a sharp decrease in transportation equipment orders.
According to the report, durable goods orders fell by 2.2 percent in December, following a revised decline of 2.0 percent in November. This downturn contradicted economists' forecasts, which had anticipated a 0.8 percent increase compared to the initially reported 1.2 percent decrease in the previous month.
However, when omitting transportation equipment orders, durable goods orders showed a modest increase of 0.3 percent in December, contrasting with a 0.2 percent decrease in November. Market expectations had predicted a 0.4 percent rise in orders excluding transportation equipment.
