03.06.202014:46:00UTC+00U.S. Factory Orders Show Another Steep Drop In April

After reporting a steep drop in new orders for U.S. manufactured goods in the previous month, the Commerce Department released a report on Wednesday showing another nosedive in factory orders in the month of April.

The Commerce Department said new orders plunged by 13.0 percent in April after plummeting by a revised 11.0 percent in March.

Economists had expected factory orders to tumble by 14.0 percent compared to the 10.3 percent slump originally reported for the previous month.

The continued nosedive in factory orders was partly due to another steep drop in durable goods orders, which cratered by 17.7 percent in April after tumbling by 16.7 percent in March.

The report showed orders for non-durable goods also plunged by 9.0 percent following a 5.4 percent slump in the previous month.

The Commerce Department said shipments of manufactured goods also tumbled by 13.5 percent in April, while inventories of manufactured goods dipped by 0.4 percent.

With shipments falling by much more than inventories, the inventories-to-shipments ratio spiked to 1.69 in April from 1.46 in March.