A rebound of the American economy may not be as strong as originally hoped, with news that shipments and orders for durable goods fell in June.

The Commerce Department reported on Thursday a 1.4% drop in shipments and a 3.8% decline for orders. The news was far worse than most analysts were expecting, who were predicting a 0.7% increase in orders following a 0.6% jump in May.
Orders fell in all sectors, with those for machinery off 6.7%, while manufacturing orders were down 4.5%. Other areas that reported bill falloffs were for non-defense capital goods (-5.2%), computers and electronics products (-3.9%), and motor vehicles (-3.4%). The only area that reported an increase in orders was the defense industry.
About the only positive news coming from the report was that business inventories of durable goods fell for the 17th straight month.
For the year-to-date, shipments and orders are down about 3% compared to the same period last year.
Meantime, a separate report from the Commerce Department indicates sales of new homes hit a record during June, which is good news for household goods movers and other segments of trucking.
New home sales increased 0.5% to a 1,001,000 unit annual rate. May figures were also revised from an originally reported record of a 1,028,000 annual rate down to 996,000 -- a revised rise of 7%, down from an 8.1% increase.
The trend is due to continuing low interest rates. It’s believed rates will remain unchanged at least for the near term, due to reports that inflation appears to be under control and with news last week from the Labor Department that the Consumer Price Index remained almost the same from May to June.