Orders for Durable Goods Surged 3.5% in November Orders for long-lasting manufactured goods surged in November and a gauge of planned business spending on capital goods recorded its largest increase in nearly a year, pointing to sustained strength in the American economy. While another report on Tuesday showed new-home sales slipped in November, sales in October were revised to show the highest pace in more than five years. In addition, house prices rebounded, underscoring the economy's improving fundamentals. "We are coming out of the shadows of the Great Recession in many ways," said Robert A. Dye, chief economist at Comerica in Dallas. The Commerce Department said durable goods orders jumped 3.5 percent last month as demand increased for a range of goods, including aircraft, machinery, and computers and electronic products. The increase, which outpaced economists" expectations for a 2 percent rise, more than reversed a drop in October. Excluding transportation, orders recorded their largest gain in six months. Nonmilitary capital goods orders excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending plans, surged 4.5 percent. The increase snapped two straight months of declines and was the largest advance since January. The increases in these so-called core capital goods orders and in durable goods orders over all suggested strength in manufacturing and were further evidence of a firming economic growth outlook. They narrow the gap with sentiment surveys that have offered a more upbeat view of manufacturing than government data. Things seemed to have turned now," said Sam Bullard, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities in Charlotte, N.C. "Businesses going into 2014 are more confident in their outlook." In a second report, the Commerce Department said new-home sales fell 2.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 464,000 units. October's sales, however, were revised to a 474,000-unit pace, the highest level since July 2008. Despite the fall, home sales retained the bulk of the previous month's 17.6 percent increase. The durable goods report showed that shipments of core capital goods, which are used to calculate equipment spending in the government's measure of gross domestic product, increased 2.8 percent last month. That was the largest rise since March 2012, prompting economists at Goldman Sachs to raise their fourth-quarter G.D.P. estimate by a tenth of a percentage point to a 2.4 percent annual rate. Shipments had dropped in September and October. Manufacturing is being bolstered by the housing market recovery, through demand for building materials and household appliances. Home resales momentum has, however, slowed somewhat since the summer because of higher mortgage rates.