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Economic Watch: Durable Goods Orders and Shipments Drop in July

New orders for long-lasting durable goods in the United States took a dive in July.

Evan Lockridge
Evan LockridgeFormer Business Contributing Editor
August 26, 2013
1 min to read


New orders for long-lasting durable goods in the United States took a dive in July.

The U.S. Commerce Department reports a 7.3% drop compared to the month before, the first decline in four months and the largest in nearly a year.

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Excluding orders outside of the volatile transportation category the decline was 0.6%.

The overall drop was due in great part to a 52.3% decline in civilian aircraft orders.

American Trucking Associations Chief Economist Bob Costello said via Twitter the news was not surprising based on earlier data that showed slowing factory output.

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On the upside, orders for motor vehicles in parts in July increased 0.5% following news earlier that new auto sales increased 14% in July compared to the same time a year ago and such an increase is expected again for August.

Shipments of durable good fell in July for the third out of the past four months, dropping 0.3% following a 0.1% decline in June.

 

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