Orders for Durable Goods Jump 3.7% in January : Economy: Aircraft, defense sectors provide most of the lift. Weekly jobless claims rise 25,000.

Factory orders for durable goods surged in January, fueled by a jump in the volatile aircraft and defense sectors, the government said Thursday.

But analysts said the size of the increase may be misleading, and they stuck to forecasts that growth in manufacturing and the overall economy is slowing from the closing months of last year.

Orders to U.S. factories for durable goods jumped 3.7% last month, the Commerce Department said, marking the first time in 6 1/2 years that the indicator has climbed for six straight months.

The increase was the biggest for long-lasting items since orders rose 4.3% in June.

The department said orders totaled a seasonally adjusted $147.9 billion, surpassing December’s record $142.6 billion. Orders in December rose a revised 2.1%.

Meanwhile, the Labor Department reported that the number of Americans filing first-time claims for jobless benefits shot up by 25,000 last week to 385,000, from a revised 360,000 during the week ended Feb. 12. Analysts attributed some of the increase to severe winter weather and the Northridge earthquake.

Bruce Steinberg of Merrill Lynch said the two new government reports “suggest that the economy is losing some of the powerful momentum generated in the fourth quarter. Basically, recent indicators suggest that the economy is slowing to a sustainable, non-inflationary pace of growth.”

The gross domestic product, the total of all goods and services produced in the United States, rose at a 5.9% annual rate in the last quarter of 1993, and the figure will probably be revised upward. Most economists predict economic expansion will slow to about 3% this year.

The durable goods report took on added significance after Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan testified before Congress this week that the Fed is keeping an eye on the indicator.

But Michael P. Niemira of Mitsubishi Bank in New York said factory orders are too volatile to be a basis for adjusting short-term interest rates.

The Fed nudged short-term rates up a quarter of a point earlier this month, and Greenspan indicated this week that additional increases could be made to help keep the lid on inflation.

Many economists had predicted only a 1% increase in durable goods orders for January, anticipating a meager rise in aircraft orders.

But the Commerce Department said orders for transportation equipment jumped 13.9% to $40.8 billion, all of it due to orders for civilian and military aircraft and parts. Excluding that transportation sector, orders increased a mere 0.3%, the eighth such consecutive increase.

Defense orders also were up sharply: 25.3% to $6.7 billion. Excluding defense, orders rose 2.9%.

Orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft actually declined 6.7%. They had risen 10 times in the last 11 months. Those orders are often a gauge of business plans to expand and modernize.

Analysts said the extreme winter weather in much of the nation and the Southern California earthquake probably slowed factory shipments but had little impact on orders.

An increase in durable goods orders usually means busier factories and more jobs.

Durable Goods:

New orders billions of dollars, seasonally adjusted:

147.9

Source: Commerce Department