Durable goods orders in March in the U.S. reportedly declined by 14.4% to $213.2 billion following February's increase of 1.1% (revised from 1.2%). Data published Friday by the U.S. Census Bureau came in worse than the market expectation for a fall of 11.9%.
"Excluding transportation, new orders decreased 0.2%," the publication further read. "Excluding defense, new orders decreased 15.8%. Transportation equipment, down two of the last three months, led the decrease, $35.6 billion or 41.0% to $51.2 billion."
The median projection in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 12% decrease. Closely watched core capital goods orders, which exclude aircraft and military hardware, rose 0.1%, compared with estimates for a steep decline.
Orders for most types of durable goods declined in March, including motor vehicles and metals. By far the sharpest drop was in civilian aircraft, which recorded negative orders of $16.3 billion, or a drop pegged at close to 300% from the prior month.
