New orders placed with U.S. factories rose by 2.4 percent in December 2006, the most in nine months, the Commerce Department reported Friday.

The 2.4 percent rise followed a 1.2 percent gain in November and pushed new orders to 405.2 billion dollars in December

Factory shipments, considered a good indication of current demand, increased 1.4 percent, following a 0.2 percent rise in November and marking the fourth gain in the last five months.

Unfilled orders rose by 2.1 percent in December, compared with an increase of 1.8 percent in November.

Inventories rose by 0.1 percent, following an increase of 0.2 percent in the previous month.

The inventories-to-shipments ratio was 1.22, down from 1.23 in November. The ratio is a measure of how long it would take to deplete stocks at the current sales pace.

For all of last year, factory orders increased by 5.3 percent. That was down from 8.1 percent in 2005 and was the smallest gain since a 0.9 percent rise in 2003.

Source: Xinhua