US durable goods orders unexpectedly fall

(Sharecast News) - US durable goods orders unexpectedly fell in December, dropping by their most in six months, as a result of a big decline in orders for transportation equipment. The total value of orders for manufactured durable goods was $276.1bn last month, down 2.2% on November, according to the US Census Bureau. The consensus forecast was for a 0.6% increase.

That was an acceleration from a revised 2.0% decline in November, and the biggest fall since June.

Orders for transportation equipment fell 7.4% over the month to $86.1bn. If these are excluded from the headline figures, durable goods orders would have risen by 0.3% following a 0.2% gain in November.

Nevertheless, the core underlying measure of durable goods, which excludes orders for defence capital goods and aircraft, improved by 0.5%, beating the 0.3% increase expected by the market.