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Orders for durable goods remained mostly unchanged in August, beating economist expectations of a sharp decline (Seeking Alpha).

What’s going on: New orders for manufactured durable goods came in at $289.7 billion last month, better than the anticipated drop of 2.8% but far softer than July’s upwardly revised increase of 9.9%, according to U.S. Census Bureau data out today.

The details: “Electrical equipment, appliances and components, up two of the last three months, drove the slight increase in the headline number, rising 1.9% to $14.4B. In July, durable goods orders stood at $289.6B.”

• Excluding transportation equipment, core durable goods increased 0.5% from July, better than the expected 0.1% rise.

Shipments: Manufactured goods shipments, however, decreased 0.5% in August to $289.4 billion after a 1.1% increase the previous month.

Unfilled orders and inventories: Unfilled orders—which have been on the rise 48 of the past 49 months—increased again, up 0.4%, to about $1.39 trillion.  

• Inventories, on the rise four of the past five months, inched up 0.1% to $529.8 billion, following a 0.1% increase in July.