By Ovunc Kutlu
ISTANBUL (AA) - US durable goods orders rose $0.1 billion in December, according to a report by the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau that was released Thursday.
New orders for manufactured durable goods were for the third time in the last four months remained "virtually unchanged" at $295.6 billion, it said in a statement.
The estimate was for the figure to show a monthly increase of 1.1%, following a 5.5% surge in November.
Excluding transportation, new orders increased 0.6%, the Commerce Department said in its report, adding new orders rose 0.5%, excluding defense.
"Primary metals, also up three of the last four months, drove the increase, $0.4 billion or 1.4 percent to $27.1 billion," it said.