Business news with words aircraft+department+gain. 2 news.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Orders for U.S.-made factory goods rose 0.2% in September on higher gasoline prices, the Commerce Department reported Friday. Orders for durable goods fell 1.7% on a big drop in orders for defense aircraft and other defense goods. Orders and shipments for nondurable goods rose 2.1%. The value of shipments from petroleum refiners jumped 11.2% on the month, accounting for all the gain in nondurables. Total factory orders were stronger than the 0.7% decline expected by economists surveyed by MarketWatch. Factory orders had fallen a revised 3.5% in August. Special one-time factors in both directions clouded the underlying trends in September. Compared with a year ago, orders were down 0.1%, while shipments were off 0.2%.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Orders for durable goods plunged 4.9% in August after a 6.1% gain in July, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday, as bookings for new aircraft see-sawed lower. It was the biggest decline since January. Excluding the 11.2% drop in transportation goods orders, new orders fell 1.8% in August after a 3.4% gain in July. Shipments of durable goods fell 1.6% in August, the biggest decline in 11 months. New orders were soft across the board, reversing the universal strength seen in July's report. Businesses reduced their orders for capital equipment from U.S. factories in August by 0.7%, another sign that capital spending and exports may not be strong enough to offset weakness in other areas of the economy.