Factory orders drop
Orders to US factories fell for a second straight month, a worse-than-expected performance that provides further evidence that a housing slowdown and credit crunch are raising risks of a recession.The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that factory orders dropped by 1.3 percent in February, about double the downturn that economists had been expecting.
On Monday, the US Commerce Department announced that orders for factory goods fell 0.6 percent in April from March.