Orders for durable goods in the US rose by 2.2% in February, recovering partly from a sharp drop in January, official figures have shown.
Total orders for the goods - defined as items which last at least three years - hit $211.8bn (£133.6bn) in the month, the Commerce Department said.
Greater demand for aircraft, machinery, computers and communications equipment helped to drive the increase.
Orders have now risen in four of the past five months.
Excluding transportation, orders rose by 1.6%.
The figures were slightly lower than analysts had expected, and they helped push shares lower on Wall Street.
In early trading, the Dow Jones index was down almost 50 points at 13,149.
On Tuesday, figures suggested consumer confidence slipped in March, while house prices fell in January, albeit at a slower pace than in the previous month.
"The economy is slowly improving, but it is definitely a halting recovery where we're not accelerating to any great degree," said Liam Dalton at Axiom Capital Management in New York.
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