Home Sales, Durable Goods Orders Rise

Sales of new homes and orders for durable goods jumped in December, suggesting the weakest parts of the U.S. economy are on the mend.

Home purchases rose 4.8 percent to an annual pace of 1.12 million, the fastest since April, the Commerce Department reported today. Orders to factories for goods made to last at least several years rose 3.1 percent, the department also said.

The figures indicate that housing and manufacturing are past the worst of a downturn that prompted some economists to predict a recession and interest-rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. The reports also suggest that central bankers, who meet next week, will signal they're reluctant to either lower or increase borrowing costs.

"The Fed is likely to read this as being in line with or better than they were hoping for," said Nigel Gault, director of U.S. research at Global Insight Inc. in Lexington, Massachusetts. "They're going to say let's keep things exactly where they are on interest rates."

Economists had forecast that new home sales would rise to an annual rate of 1.052 million, from an originally recorded 1.047 million in November, according to the median of 67 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey.

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