Orders for manufactured goods fell 0.7% in February, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. That’s the third decline in the past four months.
Economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal were expecting a 0.6% fall.
Factory orders fell 2.1% in January.
The decline in overall factory orders in February was led by transportation equipment. Excluding transportation, orders were down 0.3%. Orders for nondurable goods fell 0.4% in the month.
The Institute for Supply Management’s U.S. manufacturing activity survey published Monday dropped for the 5th straight month in March, with new orders very much in recession territory, economists said.
As reported in March, orders for durable-goods fell 1% in February, unrevised from the initial estimate. Orders for nondefense capital goods, excluding aircraft, fell a revised 0.1%, down from the prior reading of a 0.2% gain.
Stocks
DJIA,
SPX,
were little changed in early trading on Tuesday. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note
TMUBMUSD10Y,
dropped to 3.39%.
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