Orders and shipments of durable goods rise

The government said orders for durable goods, which are items intended to last three years or more, rose 2.0% to $176.4 billion in December after a revised 6.0% decline in November. Shipments, a barometer of current demand, rose by a solid 0.5% in December, after falling by 0.4%.

Many analysts had predicted a 1.5% increase in December's orders

Today's report showed that orders for transportation equipment rose by 3.5% in December, after a 20% drop the month before. Excluding the transportation category, durable-goods orders increased by a solid 1.4% in December, the third consecutive monthly gain.

For all of 2001, the department said durable-goods orders fell by a record 13.2%, the worst showing since the government began keeping records using the current classification system in 1992. In 2000, orders rose by 6.7%.