U.S. Factory Orders Declined in October

Orders for U.S. manufactured goods fell 0.1% to a seasonally adjusted $479.6 billion in October, the Commerce Department said Monday.

Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected a 0.3% decline in October.

October's decrease comes after two consecutive months of robust orders growth.

Excluding transportation, a volatile part of the overall reading, factory orders were up 0.8% in October from the previous month. Orders were up 0.2% in the same time frame when excluding defense spending, another volatile part of factory orders figures.

New orders for durable goods fell 0.8% from September, a slightly smaller decline from an earlier estimate of a 1.2% drop.

The Commerce Department wasn't able to isolate the potential effects of recent hurricanes that hit the southern and eastern U.S. on data released in the last three months because the report is designed to capture changes at the national level and lacks geographic detail.

The Commerce Department's report on factory orders can be accessed at: https://www.census.gov/manufacturing/m3/index.html

Write to Sharon Nunn at Sharon.Nunn@wsj.com and Sarah Chaney at Sarah.Chaney@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 04, 2017 10:15 ET (15:15 GMT)