WASHINGTON (Thomson Financial) - US durable goods orders fell as expected in April, but core capital goods orders showed unexpected strength with the best performance in a year and a half.
Total new durables orders were off 0.5 pct, the Commerce Department reported today, but excluding transportation goods, they were up 2.5 pct.
Economists polled by Thomson's IFR Markets had expected orders to fall 1.1 pct for the month overall and to be off 0.7 pct ex-transportation.
There was, however, an unusually wide range of forecasts, from -4.0 pct to +1.0 reflecting unusual uncertainty about industry fundamentals as well as the normal monthly volatility.
'One swallow a spring does not make and this report in and of itself does not mean very much. However, taken in conjunction with other data, the resilience of the US economy during what astute observers like Alan Greenspan have warned is the most wrenching period since the Great Depression is quite remarkable,' said Marc Chandler of Brown Brothers Harriman.