WASHINGTON (AP) — Companies placed fewer orders to U.S. factories for the second straight month and a key measure that tracks business investment fell, adding to evidence that the economy is weakening.
The Commerce Department says orders for factory goods fell 0.6 percent in April from March. Demand for core capital goods, viewed as a proxy for business investment plans, fell 2.1 percent in April following a 2.3 percent decline in March.
Even with the declines, factory orders are still well above their recession lows. Orders in April totaled $465.98 billion, up 38.7 percent from the recession low reached in March 2009. Orders are still 3.1 percent below the peak reached in December 2007, the month the recession began.
Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to BenefitsPRO, part of your ALM digital membership.
Your access to unlimited BenefitsPRO content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
