from Fox Business:
New orders received by U.S. factories fell by 0.5% in August, resuming a downtrend as demand for transportation equipment fell sharply, according to a Commerce Department report on Monday.
Total orders fell to a seasonally adjusted $408.9 billion after an upwardly revised 0.5% increase in July and a 0.6% fall in June. Economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast a decline of 0.4% in August.
The August decline in factory orders was due mainly to a 10.2% decline in the volatile transportation equipment segment, in which motor vehicle-related orders were off 3.6% and non-defense aircraft down 40.2%. Excluding the transport segment, factory orders rose 0.9%.
Orders for machinery rose 5.2% in August, while orders for computers and electronic products rose 3.7%.
