The U.S. Commerce Department reported on Friday that the durable goods orders fell 2.1 percent m-o-m in April, following a revised 1.7 percent m-o-m gain in March (originally a 2.7 percent m-o-m advance).

Economists had forecast a 2.0 percent m-o-m decrease.

According to the report, transportation equipment (-5.9 percent m-o-m) drove the decrease. Meanwhile, orders for durable goods excluding transportation were unchanged m-o-m, following a revised 0.5 percent m-o-m drop in April (originally an increase of 0.4 percent m-o-m) and missing market expectations of a 0.2 percent m-o-m gain.

Orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending plans, dropped 0.9 percent m-o-m in April, after increasing 0.3 percent m-o-m in March (revised down from +1.0 percent m-o-m previously reported). Economists had forecast core capital goods orders declining 0.3 percent m-o-m in April.

Shipments of these core capital goods were unchanged in April after a revised 0.6 percent m-o-m fall in the prior month (originally a 0.1 percent m-o-m decrease).