The Commerce Department released a report on Tuesday showing a steep drop in new orders for U.S. manufactured goods in the month of January.
The report said factory orders plunged by 3.6 percent in January after falling by a revised 0.3 percent in December.
Economists had expected factory orders to tumble by 2.9 percent compared to the 0.2 percent uptick originally reported for the previous month.
The bigger than expected decrease in factory orders partly reflected a nosedive by durable goods orders, which plummeted by 6.2 percent in January after slipping by 0.3 percent in December.
The report also said orders for non-durable goods slumped by 1.1 percent in January after falling by 0.3 percent in the previous month.
The Commerce Department also said shipments of manufactured goods slid by 1.0 percent in January after declining by 0.5 percent in December.
Inventories of manufactured goods also edged down by 0.1 percent in January after coming in virtually unchanged in December.
With shipments falling by more than inventories, the inventories-to-shipments ratio rose to 1.50 in January from 1.48 in December.
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