New orders for U.S.-made durable goods rose a smaller-than-expected 2.5% in February and excluding volatile transportation orders were down for the fourth time in the last five months, a government report on Wednesday showed.
The Commerce Department reported that excluding transportation orders, which are heavily skewed by aircraft; durable goods orders -- items meant to last three or more years -- fell by 0.1%.
Economists polled ahead of the report were expecting overall durable goods orders to advance by 3.5% and by 1.6%, excluding transportation.