Factory orders fell 1.6% in January after growing by a revised 1.7% in December. Economists polled by US media had on the average forecast factory orders to drop 1.8% in January, making the reported number slightly better than expected.
While orders for passenger jets fell, the report also showed shipments for a range of manufactured goods rebounding from back-to-back declines in November and December, against unchanged inventories.
"These numbers are generally in-line with what was expected and the revisions are negligible," economist Adam Button said on the ForexLive forum. "It looks like we've seen the worst of the bullwhip effect around the manufacturing sector."
Manufacturing accounts for 11.3% of the US economy, right after consumer spending, which makes up 70%.
The January decline in orders for US-made goods came after last week’s release of the Institute for Supply Management’s survey that suggested manufacturing had slowed for a fourth month in a row in February.