U.S. durable goods orders fell by 0.5 percent in August to 209.7 billion dollars, following a bigger drop of 2.7 percent in July, the Commerce Department reported on Wednesday.

The report showed that orders for aircraft declined by 21.9 percent in August, while orders for military aircraft rose by 9.8 percent.

Excluding the volatile transportation sector, orders were down 2 percent, the biggest setback in this category in 13 months.

The 1-billion-dollar drop from July, much worse than the expected 0.4 percent increase, provided evidence that the U.S. economy was slowing because of rising interest rates and the decline of home sales, according to analysts.

Source: Xinhua