MarketWatch.com - MarketPulse
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- A big jump in demand for civilian aircraft pushed durable goods orders up for the first time in four months in November, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. Excluding transportation orders, however, durable goods orders fell by 0.7% in November. New orders for non-defense aircraft and parts shot up by 20.9% in November, the data show. However, new orders for defense aircraft and parts dropped by 20.1% in the same month. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch were expecting orders for durable goods to climb by 2.9% in November after falling by 0.2% in October.
Shanghai Daily: Business - shanghaidaily.com
THE US trade deficit narrowed more than forecast in August as exports climbed to a record for a sixth consecutive month. The gap shrank 2.4 percent to US$57.6 billion, the smallest since January, from a revised US$59 billion in July, the Commerce Department said yesterday in Washington. Foreign companies, benefiting from growing demand and a weaker dollar that's made American goods less expensive, have been snapping up Boeing Co aircraft and General Electric Co turbines. Rising exports will help keep the economy from falling into recession even as the housing slump persists. "The dollar is continuing to decline, which is giving a huge boost to competitiveness," Nigel Gault, chief US economist at Global Insight Inc in Lexington, Massachusetts, said before the report. Economists had forecast the deficit would narrow to US$59 billion, from a previously reported US$59.2 billion in July, according to the median of 74 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey. Prices of goods