US durable goods orders drop more than expected in April
Orders in the US for goods made to last more than three years fell sharply in April, with weakness especially evident in demand for transport equipment.
According to the Department of Commerce, in seasonally adjusted terms, total durable goods orders dropped at a month-on-month clip of 17.2% to reach $169.7bn.
Economists had penciled in a decline of 18.0%.
Last month's drop was on top of a downwardly-revised decline of 16.6% in March, versus a preliminary estimate of -14.7%.
Transport equipment orders nearly halved, crashing by 47.3% on the month to reach $26.63bn, led by a 52.8% collapse in orders for automobiles and parts to roughly $22.6bn.
Orders for both civilian and defence aircraft also registered big declines.
Core capital goods orders, which exclude those for civilian aircraft and defence, were also weak, shrinking by 5.8% versus March to reach $61.94bn.