With orders for durable goods showing a substantial pullback, the Commerce Department released a report on Friday showing that new orders for manufactured goods fell by more than expected in the month of March.
The report showed that orders for manufactured goods tumbled by 4.0 percent in March following a downwardly revised 1.9 percent increase in February.
Economists had expected orders to fall by 2.8 percent compared to the 3.0 percent increase originally reported for the previous month.
The bigger than expected drop in factory orders was partly due to a sharp drop in orders for transportation equipment, which plunged by 15.1 percent in March after jumping by 20.3 percent in February.
However, excluding orders for transportation equipment, factory orders still fell by 2.0 percent in March compared to a 0.7 percent decrease in the previous month.
As mentioned above, the report also showed a steep drop in orders for durable goods, which fell by 5.8 percent in March after rising by 4.3 percent in February.
Orders for non-durable goods also fell by 2.4 percent in March after edging down by 0.1 percent in the previous month.
The Commerce Department also said shipments of manufactured goods fell by 1.0 percent in March following a 0.4 percent increase in February. Inventories of manufactured goods came in nearly flat.
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May 01, 2026 15:54 ET Central banks dominated the economics news flow this week with almost all major ones announcing their latest policy decisions and many boosted expectations for a rate hike in June. In other news, several countries released the preliminary data for first quarter economic growth. In the U.S., comments by Fed Chair Jerome Powell were also in focus as his term ends this month.