Durable goods orders rose unexpectedly due to a gain in the transportation sector.

The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that there was a 0.8% increase in durable goods in September, exceeding economists’ expectations of a 1.5% decline. Durable goods are items such as cars, appliances, and machinery that are expected to last for at least three years.

After orders plunged 5.5% in August, marking the largest drop in nearly two years, the increase in September was caused by a surge in demand in the transportation sector. Orders for commercial aircraft skyrocketed 29.7% and demand for motor vehicles rose by 3%, boosting orders by the largest amount in three months.

However, some economists believe that these numbers are not as much of a positive indicator as they seem.

“This month, the orders seem to be driven by aircraft, which is a very volatile number,” said Patrick Newport, a U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight. “This number jumps around from month to month. Countries will order all of their aircraft at once, and then not order anything for the next couple of months.”           

Excluding transportation, September’s orders for durable goods dropped 1.1%.

“When you take away aircraft, the underlying trend is not good,” Newport said.

However, some saw the report as a positive.

“When you look at the capital goods part, which I think is more important actually, it didn’t decline by the amount you would expect during a recession,” said Michael Feroli, U.S. economist at JPMorgan. “While everything else is atrocious right now, this was a minor victory.”

In the capital goods industry, new orders for defense increased 19.6%, or $1.9 billion. Non-defense new orders increased 0.8%, or $0.6 billion.

“However, I think it is reasonable to expect that orders will decline from here,” Feroli added. “The outlook for capital spending right now is pretty grim, and capital spending cycles tend to last for a couple of quarters. I would expect it to get worse before it gets better.”