Orders for manufactured goods rose 0.4% in April, the Commerce Department said Monday. It is the fourth increase in factory-goods orders in the past five months.
Economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal were expecting a 0.6% rise.
The gain was led by transportation equipment. Excluding that sector, orders were down 0.2%.
Durable-goods orders rose 1.1% in April, unrevised from the initial estimate last week. The advance durable-goods data is always released ahead of the full report. Nondurable-goods orders fell 0.1% in April.
Orders for nondefense capital goods, excluding aircraft, rose a revised 1.3% in April, down slightly from the prior estimate of a 1.4% increase. The gain was led by computers and machinery.
