Factory orders fall more than expected in May

Factory orders fell 1% in May, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday.

Economists had forecast that new orders for manufactured goods in May fell 0.8% after a downward-revised 1.8% gain in the prior month, according to Bloomberg.

Durable goods orders for the month were also revised lower. Orders for items built to last like dishwashers and railings fell 2.3%.

An advance reading on durable goods orders showed that they fell 2.2%.

Excluding transportation orders, which can be quite volatile month-to-month, durable goods orders fell 0.3%, unchanged from the preliminary print.

"The May durable goods report released on June 24 reinforced the persistent deteriorating trend in business investment spending in place even before the UK referendum," wrote Morgan Stanley's Ellen Zentner in a note ahead of the release.

Zentner noted that business investment is on track for a third straight quarterly drop of more than 2%. That's only happened outside a recession only twice before, in 1951 and 1986, she said.

More to come ...