U.S. factories saw demand for long-lasting manufactured goods slacken in October.

The U.S. Commerce Department said today that durable-goods orders declined 0.4% to US$196.32 billion last month. That is well short of the 0.5% increase expected among economists.

Orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, seen by economists as a reliable barometer of business spending, dropped 3.6%, after a 5.2% increase in September.

Orders for computers and electronics fell 5.7%. Orders for primary metals decreased 2.0%, while fabricated metals rose 3.1%. Transportation orders rose 0.3% as defense aircraft climbed 35.2%. Motor vehicles and parts decreased 2.8%. Non-defense aircraft fell 0.4%. Absent transportation, orders for all other durable goods decreased 0.7%, following September’s 2.8% rise.

Durable-goods inventories rose by 0.5% in October. Unfilled orders rose 0.6%, but shipments increased 0.6%.

Separately, initial jobless claims fell by 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted level of 323,000 in the week that ended Nov. 20, the Labor Department said Wednesday.

The average for the last month dropped to a four-year low of 332,000. Economists had called for a weekly gain of 1,000 claims.