April Factory Orders Drop Unexpectedly

Orders for goods from U.S. factories dropped in April, falling to the lowest level in six months.

The Commerce Department announced on Monday that orders for manufactured products slipped 0.6% in April to $465.98 billion. That disappointed economists who had forecast factory orders to remain flat from the month before, the Wall Street Journal noted.

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Factory orders for March were also revised downward from a previously announced decline of 1.5% to a fall of 2.1%.

Shipments from U.S. factories in April slid 0.3%. Inventories at U.S. factories remained flat during the month, but unfilled orders fell 0.1%.

Durable good orders were flat in April. But that represented a lower number than earlier government predictions of a 0.2% gain. Orders for durable goods dropped 3.7% in March.

Orders for military equipment tumbled 21.5% in April. Non-defense manufacturing fell 0.2% during the month.

During the month, the government reported sliding demand for automobiles, computers and heavy machinery.

Automobile orders fell by 0.5% during April while airplane manufacturing and shipbuilding rose 2.2%. Without transportation-related manufacturing, April factory orders fell 1.1%