New orders for durable goods slid in September on declines in orders for transportation equipment, the U.S. Commerce Department said today.
Orders declined 0.4 percent to $261.3 billion, according to a monthly report. The fall came after four monthly gains, including an adjusted 1.3 percent increase in August.
Excluding transportation, orders rose 0.4 percent. Excluding defense, orders slipped 2 percent.
Transportation equipment drove the overall decline. The category has been down two of the past three months.
The total transportation category declined 2.3 percent to $77.7 billion, Within transportation, motor vehicles and parts had a 2.9 percent slide to almost $50 billion.
The auto industry has been coping for much of this year with a shortage of semiconductors. That has held down production and crimped the availability of vehicles. Some factories have been shut down temporarily.
Another part of transportation, commercial aircraft, posted a 28 percent decline to $10.8 billion. The defense aircraft and parts category was a bright spot with orders totaling $6.1 billion, more than doubling from the month before.
In other categories, orders for machinery gained 1.1 percent to $38.6 billion, fabricated metal parts orders rose 0.7 percent to $36.8 billion, and primary metals increased 0.6 percent to $24.1 billion.
The report is based on a survey of about 3,100 companies.
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