New orders for US-manufactured durable goods dropped by 4.5% mom to $332 billion in May 2026, after an upwardly revised 8.5% jump in April and matching market forecasts. This followed two consecutive months of gains and marked the steepest decline since June 2025, driven by a 14% drop in transport equipment orders, on account of nondefense aircraft and parts (-51.8%). Orders also fell sharply for capital goods (-13.6%). Meanwhile, demand rebounded slightly for computers and electronic products (0.3% vs -0.4%) and electrical equipment, appliances, and components (0.3% vs -0.2%). Excluding transportation, orders rose by 1.3%, following a revised 1.4% advance in April and surpassing estimates of a 0.6% increase; while excluding defense, they slipped by 4.6%, after April's revised 8.4% surge. Orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending plans, rose by 1.6%, after a downwardly revised 0.7% decrease in April.