The U.S. Commerce Department reported on Thursday that the durable goods orders fell 1.3 percent m-o-m in April, following a revised 1.3 percent m-o-m advance in March (originally a 0.5 percent m-o-m gain). This represented the first decline in durable goods orders since April 2020.

Economists had forecast a 0.7 percent m-o-m increase.

According to the report, the April drop was driven by a 6.7 percent m-o-m decline in orders for transportation equipment. Meanwhile, orders for durable goods excluding transportation rose 1.0 percent m-o-m in April, following a revised 3.2 percent m-o-m jump in March (originally a 1.6 percent m-o-m gain), beating economists’ forecast for a 0.8 percent m-o-m advance.

Elsewhere, orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending plans, surged 2.3 percent m-o-m in April after a revised 1.6 percent decline m-o-m in March. Economists had called for a 1.0 percent m-o-m increase in core capital goods orders in April.

Shipments of these core capital goods went up 0.9 percent m-o-m in April after a revised 1.5 percent m-o-m drop in the prior month.