Durable Goods Orders Come In Way Worse Than Expected

03-24-2011 • BusinessInsider.com/

Headline: Down 0.9% for February Expectations: Up 1.1% This number is much worse than expectations, and futures have pulled back a bit on the news. It is a sharp drop after January's 3.6% rise in the same number. It looks as if machinery is the big drag on this number. From the release: New orders for manufactured durable goods in February decreased $1.9 billion or 0.9 percent to $200.0 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau announced today. This decrease, down four of the last five months, followed a 3.6 percent January increase. Excluding transportation, new orders decreased 0.6 percent. Excluding defense, new orders increased 0.4 percent. Machinery, down two consecutive months, had the largest decrease, $1.2 billion or 4.2 percent to $26.6 billion.