There's hardly a more volatile component of the durable goods orders report than aircraft & parts. Last month's orders halved, pulling overall transportation orders down 12.8%. The declined owed to an evaporation of orders for commercial aircraft. Outside of this volatility in transportation, durable goods orders inched up 0.5% after a strong 4.5% November rise which was revised up sharply from 2.4%. For all of last year total durable goods orders rose 13.5%.

During last month, primary metals orders fell back 4.7% (+18.9% y/y) after their November surge. Computer orders also fell 1.2% (+10.4% y/y) and electrical equipment orders slipped 0.1% (+21.7% y/y) following an 8.6% November surge. Mitigating these declines was a 10.6% jump (23.5% y/y) in machinery orders.

Shipments of durable goods were more stable last month and increased 1.4% (4.1%) led by a 6.7% jump (13.7% y/y) in machinery. For the year shipments rose 7.2% following sharp declines both in 2008 and 2009. Not only have higher orders & shipments been powering activity in the factory sector but there's been a turn toward inventory accumulation since February. Inventories accumulated another 0.7% (9.0% y/y) in December following a 0.9% November increase. For all of last year inventories rose 9.0% after a 12.8% decline in 2009. Finishing the durables report was a modest 3.7% rise in unfilled orders last year after an 11.1% 2009 decline.

The durable goods figures are available in Haver's USECON database.