By Jeffrey Sparshott

New orders for manufactured goods dropped 13.0% to a seasonally adjusted $384.3 billion in April as efforts to contain the new coronavirus kept workers home, disrupted supply chains and depressed demand. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected a 12.5% drop.

Here are highlights from Wednesday's Commerce Department report:

--Excluding transportation, orders fell 8.5% in April from the previous month. Orders excluding defense slipped 12.3%. Orders for transportation and defense can be volatile from month to month.

--New orders for durable goods--items designed to last at least three years--decreased 17.7%, compared with a preliminary estimate of a 17.2% fall.

--Factory orders for March decreased 11% from a month earlier, compared with an earlier estimate of a 10.3% fall.

Write to Jeffrey Sparshott at jeffrey.sparshott@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 03, 2020 10:26 ET (14:26 GMT)