With orders for transportation equipment showing a substantial increase, the Commerce Department released a report on Wednesday showing new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods surged by more than expected in the month of March.

The report said durable goods orders soared by 2.6 percent in March after climbing by a downwardly revised 0.7 percent in February.

Economists had expected durable goods orders to spike by 2.3 percent compared to the 1.3 percent jump that had been reported for the previous month.

Excluding the surge in orders for transportation equipment, durable goods orders crept up by 0.2 percent in March after inching up by 0.1 percent in February. Ex-transportation orders were expected to rise by 0.3 percent.

At 10:30 am ET, the Energy Information Administration is scheduled to release its report on oil inventories in the week ended April 19th.

Crude oil inventories are expected to increase by 1.6 million barrels after jumping by 2.7 million barrels in the previous week.

The Treasury Department is scheduled to announce the results of this month’s auction of $70 billion worth of five-year notes at 1 pm ET.