New orders for manufactured goods, up two of the last three months, increased 1.8% to $499.3 billion in December, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
New orders for manufactured durable goods increased $5.9 billion or 2.4% to $245.6 billion. Transportation equipment drove the increase, up 7.9% to $83.2 billion. New orders for manufactured nondurable goods increased $2.8 billion or 1.1 percent to $253.8 billion.
Shipments of manufactured durable goods, down six consecutive months, decreased 0.2% to $250.3 billion.
Inventories of manufactured durable goods increased 0.5% to $435.9 billion.
Read the Census release.