US factory orders rise less than expected in September

WASHINGTON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - New orders for U.S. factory goods increased less than expected in September as manufacturers remained constrained by tariffs.

Factory orders rose 0.2% after a downwardly revised 1.3% increase in August, the Commerce Department's Census Bureau said on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast orders would gain 0.5% after a previously reported 1.4% rebound.

Orders increased 3.5% on a year-on-year basis in September. The report was delayed by the record 43-day shutdown of the federal government. Manufacturing, which accounts for about 10.1% of the economy, has been hamstrung by President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs. But a surge in spending on artificial intelligence has propped up some segments of the industry.

The government also reported that orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, which are seen as a measure of business spending plans on equipment, increased 0.9% in September, as reported last week. Shipments of these so-called core capital goods also rose 0.9%, as estimated last week.