U.S. orders for durable goods sink 13.2% in August (by Jeffry Bartash)

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Orders for durable goods sank 13.2% in August, the biggest one-month decline in more than three years, as bookings for autos and aircraft fell sharply, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected a decline of 5.3%. Excluding the volatile transportation sector, whose bookings can swing sharply from month to month, orders fell a much smaller 1.6%. And orders for core capital goods, which exclude defense and aircraft, actually rose 1.1% after a 5.2% decline in July. Shipments of durable goods fell 3.0% in August, while inventories rose 0.6%. Orders for July were revised down to a 3.3% increase from an initial report of a 4.1% gain. Shipments of core capital goods, a number used to help calculate gross domestic product, fell 0.9% in August to mark the second straight decline.