Economic Buzz: US durable goods orders flat in January

New orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods were mostly unchanged in January, according to data released Friday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Orders edged down by $0.1 billion to $321.2 billion, marking the third decline in the past four months.

The result followed a 0.9% drop in December, which was revised from an earlier estimate of a 1.4% decline. The January figure was also much weaker than economists? expectations of a 1.2% increase.

When transportation equipment is excluded, durable goods orders rose 0.4%. Orders excluding defense increased 0.5%.

The decline in January was mainly driven by transportation equipment, which fell by $1.0 billion, or 0.9%, to $113.3 billion. This sector has also recorded declines in three of the past four months.

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