US durable goods orders fall in February

Orders for US durable goods sagged in February after January's gain, led by declines in auto and aircraft orders, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.
New orders for long-lasting manufactured goods fell 1.4 percent from January to $231.3 billion, the third decline in four months.
Excluding the transportation sector, new orders for durable goods fell 0.4 percent.
January's more buoyant data was also revised lower, underscoring the general weakness of the manufacturing sector.
Non-defense capital goods excluding the often-volatile aircraft sector scored their sixth straight monthly decline.
Overall durable goods orders were down 0.5 percent in the first two months of the year compared with the same period of 2014.
Jay Morelock of FTN Financial said that some of the fall can be blamed on the West Coast ports slowdown in January and February, but that other factors will hold down output for months to come.
"The strong dollar, drop in commodity prices, inclement weather, and West Coast port shutdown created the perfect storm for durable goods in the first quarter," he said.
"The weather will improve and ports are back up and running, but there isn't much reason to believe the dollar is going to weaken significantly or commodity prices will rebound to previous levels any time soon."