Orders for Durable Goods Edge Up; Home Sales Soar

New orders for U.S.-made durable goods barely gained last month, but sales of new homes soared -- mixed news that analysts said did little to alter a view of a solidly expanding U.S. economy.

The Commerce Department said Thursday that orders for durable goods -- high-priced items meant to last three or more years -- edged up 0.3% in February. This was well below the 1% gain expected on Wall Street.

But the department said sales of new U.S. homes soared 9.4% in February, the largest jump in more than four years.

A third report showed jobless benefit claims rose last week but held at levels suggesting a continued labor market recovery.

Strong aircraft orders kept up overall demand for durable goods last month, offsetting weakness elsewhere, including a 1.2% drop in vehicle orders. Excluding a 1.6% gain in transportation orders, demand for durable goods would have fallen 0.2%.

The report also suggested that businesses scaled back spending plans last month as orders for non-defense capital goods, excluding aircraft, fell 2.1%. But the decline followed an upwardly revised 4.4% advance in January, and economists said the trend in capital spending was still rising.

Outside of aircraft, however, orders were mostly weak, with demand for machinery, fabricated metal products and communications equipment down. Orders for primary metals and computers, however, rose.

The jump in home sales brought the February sales pace back up to the 1.2-million-unit annual rate of December, well above Wall Street’s forecast of a 1.15-million-unit pace.

Sales rose nationwide, shooting up 20.3% in the Northeast, 9.9% in the Midwest and 7.4% in the West. In the South, the busiest housing market, sales climbed 9% to a record 619,000.

The report also showed the median sales price of new homes rose to a record $230,700 from $210,400 in January.

Separately, the Labor Department said the number of workers seeking first-time unemployment benefits climbed by 3,000 last week to 324,000.

Initial claims were still well below year-earlier levels, a sign the job market is on the mend.