New orders for manufactured durable goods decreased 1.7% in April to $248.5 billion, following a 2.7% March rise, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The volatile transportation equipment sector led the decline, falling 6.1% to $87.1 billion over the month. Commercial aircraft was the largest contributor to transportation’s decline, decreasing 29.0% to $16.2 billion. New orders excluding the transportation sector fell 0.1%.
New orders excluding defense declined 1.9% on the month, while orders of nondefense capital goods slid 6.8% to $78.6 billion.
Shipments of manufactured durable goods fell 0.1% to $246.7 billion. This followed a 0.7% increase in March.
Inventories of manufactured durable goods continued to rise, growing 0.3% to $401.7 billion. This followed a 0.2% March increase and led to growth in twenty-one of the last twenty-two months.
Read the Census release.