Business news with words aircraft+department+reported. 6 news.

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.

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.

CHINA will begin research on a larger version of its first homemade passenger jet Xiang Feng after its first flight next year, Shanghai Securities News reported yesterday. The China Aviation Industry Corporation I, better known as AVIC I, will cooperate with Canada's Bombardier to initiate the research, the report said. Talks between AVIC I and Bombardier are going smoothly, but the final design of the new jet is still under discussion, the report quoted Wang Weiya, the head of AVIC I's civil aviation department as saying. ARJ21-900, the second generation jet of Xiang Feng, whose code name is ARJ21-700, will have 105 seats with all economy class, a larger capacity than Xiang Feng's 90 seats, Wang said. China launched Xiang Feng in Shanghai on December 21, marking a major step forward for the domestic aviation market. China is estimated to need another 800 to 1,000 regional jets by 2020 and the production capacity of ARJ will reach 30 aircraft annually by 2011.

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%.

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

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.