New orders for long-lasting US manufactured goods took a surprise tumble last month, and Hurricane Isabel pushed down new jobless claims last week, according to two reports published today.
Orders for durable goods, items intended to last three years or more, decreased 0.9 per cent in August, the US Commerce Department said. It was the first decline since April and bucked expectations on Wall Street for a 0.6 per cent rise.
Although the report suggested a pickup in manufacturing activity might not be as robust as some analysts had expected, the department did revise up its figure for durable orders in July to a 1.5 per cent gain from the previously reported 1 per cent advance.
In a separate report, the US Labor Department said initial claims for unemployment aid, which give an early reading on the resilience of the labor market, fell further than expected to 381,000 last week from a revised 400,000 a week earlier.
Wall Street economists had forecast new claims at 400,000 compared to the previously reported 399,000 in the prior week.
A key factor in the drop was the hurricane that swept through the eastern United States late last week, hindering residents from filing claims at government offices.
"About 50 per cent of the decline is a result of the power outages from Hurricane Isabel that forced the closure of state offices in such areas as North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, the District of Columbia," a department spokesman said.