Durable goods orders to U.S. factories plunged in October by 8.3 percent, the largest amount in more than six years, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.

As a result, demand for durable goods, big-ticket items expected to last at least three years such as cars and airplanes, fell last month to a seasonally adjusted 210 billion U.S. dollars.

It marked the third month in the past four that durable goods orders had either fallen or shown no gain.

The larger-than-expected 8.3 percent drop followed a surge of 8.7 percent in demand of durable goods in September and was the largest one-month decline since a 14 percent plunge in July 2000.

The October drop in durable goods orders was led by a 44.5 percent plunge in demand for commercial aircraft. Orders for motor vehicles, however, edged up 1.4 percent last month.

Overall, orders for transportation products dropped 21.7 percent. Transportation accounts for more than a quarter of total durable goods, so any change in these orders has a significant impact on the total.

While excluding transportation, durable goods orders in October were down 1.7 percent, the biggest decline in 15 months and the third drop in this category in the past four months.

The big drop in demand for durable goods in October provided a new evidence that the economy had been slowing, according to analysts.

Source: Xinhua