Area Development
New orders for manufactured durable goods dropped by 0.9 percent in February, the Census Bureau reports. The value of new orders declined by $1.9 billion to $200 billion. Durable goods orders had risen by 3.6 percent in January.

The machinery sector saw the largest drop, of 4.2 percent, or $1.2 billion, for a total value of $26.6 billion. But machinery also had the largest increase in shipments in February among manufacturing sectors, rising 2.6 percent to $26.1 billion.

Inventories rose by 0.9 percent, or $2.9 billion, to $328.3 billion. Transportation equipment had the largest inventory increase among manufacturing sectors, rising 0.9 percent, or $0.8 billion, to $87.8 billion.