New orders for U.S. manufactured goods pulled back in line with estimates in the month of May, the Commerce Department revealed in a report released on Tuesday.
The report said factory orders fell by 1.0 percent in May following a 1.8 percent jump in April. The drop in orders matched economist estimates.
The decrease in factory orders was primarily due to a sharp pullback in durable goods orders, which tumbled by 2.3 percent in May after surging up by 3.2 percent in April.
Orders for transportation equipment led the decline in durable goods orders, plunging by 5.7 percent during the month.
Meanwhile, the Commerce Department said orders for non-durable goods rose by 0.3 percent in May after climbing by 0.4 percent in April.
The report also showed that shipments of manufactured goods were virtually unchanged in May following a 0.4 percent increase in the previous month.
Inventories of manufactured goods edged down by 0.1 percent in May, matching the modest decrease seen in April.
The inventories-to-shipments ratio subsequently came in at 1.36 in May, unchanged from the previous month.
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