Orders for durable goods soared 9.9% in September, mainly because of a rebound in aircraft bookings, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected an 8.3% increase. Excluding transportation, new orders rose a much smaller 2.0%. Core durable-goods orders - demand for capital goods excluding defense and aircraft - were unchanged last month after rising a scant 0.2% in August. Shipments of core capital goods, a number used to help calculate quarterly gross domestic product, fell 0.3% last month. It declined in all three months of the third quarrter. The drop in durable-goods ... (full story)