Demand for big-ticket manufactured goods and new home sales both were better than expected in March, raising hopes that the long slides in manufacturing and housing are slowly coming to an end, according to AP. The Commerce Department said Friday that orders for durable goods dropped 0.8 percent last month, about half the 1.5 percent decline that economists expected. A rise in orders for commercial and military aircraft helped cushion weakness elsewhere. The small drop followed a 2.1 percent increase in orders in February. That was the first gain after six straight monthly declines. New home sales fell 0.6 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 356,000 from an upwardly revised February rate of 358,000, the department said. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected a sales pace of 340,000 units. The inventory of new homes for sale dropped 5 percent from February levels. February's results were 6 percent higher than originally reported, but home sales last month were down nearly 31 percent from March 2008. The housing results fanned optimism that developers have slashed prices and construction enough that sales have finally hit bottom. Prices, however, are likely to remain weak for months as builders continue to clear out their stock of unsold homes. While February's durable goods results were revised down from an earlier estimate of a 3.5 percent gain, that rise in orders followed by only a small drop in March show some faint signs of life in manufacturing.
