Dados EUA (13:30): Durable orders plunge

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Durable orders plunge

Orders for big-ticket items post far sharper decline than Wall Street forecasts.
August 24, 2005: 8:49 AM EDT

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Durable goods orders fell dramatically in July, according to a government report Wednesday that came in far below Wall Street forecasts.

The Commerce Department report said durable orders fell 4.9 percent in July, compared with a revised 1.9 percent increase in June. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast an orders decline of only 1.5 percent. Durable goods are defined as products that last more than three years, like refrigerators, cars and airplanes.

Stock futures fell sharply following the report, while bond prices rose and the yield on the 10-year treasury slipped to 4.16 percent from 4.18 percent earlier in the morning, on the report that raised concerns that economic growth might not be as strong as generally believed going forward.

The report showed a wide-spread weakness in orders. Machinery orders were down 6.2 percent, while fabricated metal product orders dropped 4.4 percent.

Technology orders fell 5.9 percent, with computer and related products falling 8.3 percent as communication orders fell 7.1 percent.

Non-defense aircraft orders plunged 20.2 percent, but even excluding orders from the often volatile transportation sector, orders fell 3.2 percent. Reuters had forecast that excluding transportation orders would be off only 0.6 percent.