July Durable Goods Orders Fall as Transportation Weakness Persists

10:25 AM EDT, 08/26/2025 (MT Newswires) -- US durable goods orders fell less than projected in July as weakness in the transportation equipment component persisted, official data showed.

Orders for tangible items with an average life of at least three years fell 2.8% sequentially to about $302.81 billion last month, the Census Bureau said Tuesday. That follows a month-on-month decline of 9.4% in June.

The consensus was for a drop of 3.8% last month in a survey compiled by Bloomberg.

Demand for transportation equipment dropped 9.7% last month, after a 23% plunge in June. The civilian aircraft segment slid 33% in July, while the defense measure rose 10%. The motor vehicles index edged 0.3% higher.

Excluding transportation, durable goods orders rose 1.1% in July, faster than 0.3% growth in the month prior. Wall Street expected a 0.2% increase.

The overall drop in orders was largely due to weakness in the "volatile" transportation equipment as Boeing (BA) bookings fell in July, Priscilla Thiagamoorthy, senior economist at BMO, said in a note.

Boeing (BA) booked 31 orders in July, down from 116 in June and 72 a year earlier, data from the plane maker showed.

The durable goods order report still had signs pointing to the US economy's underlying strength, Thiagamoorthy said. Excluding transportation, durable goods climbed for the third month in a row amid "solid" gains in primary metals, machinery, and electrical equipment, she said.

"Business investment is off to a solid start in (the third quarter), following a strong first half of the year," Thiagamoorthy wrote. "Firms are going ahead with capital spending plans as trade tensions ease and uncertainty slowly subsides."

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