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Durable goods orders decline sharply

The U.S. Department of Commerce reported Wednesday that orders for durable goods fell by 4.9 percent in August, the biggest decline since January 2007's 6.1 percent decline.

The decline was far larger than the 3.5 percent drop that economists had been expecting and resulted from across-the-board decreases in a number of categories.

The 4.9 percent drop followed a significant gain of 6.1 percent in July. July's increase reflected in part a jump in demand for autos as dealers tried to stockpile inventory in advance of a threatened strike.

For August, transportation equipment orders fell 11.2 percent, the biggest setback since January. The weakness was led by a 41 percent drop in demand for commercial aircraft.

Orders for motor vehicles and parts dropped 6.2 percent after having jumped by 10.5 percent in July. Offsetting the weakness somewhat, demand for military aircraft shot up by 43.2 percent.

Excluding transportation, orders still would have been down by 1.8 percent after a 3.4 percent rise in orders outside of transportation in July.