Commerce Dept press release.

It appears that excluding transportation, Durable Goods dropped 1.1% and excluding defense, they dropped 0.6%.

So, it appears new orders for aircraft came in and saved the day, otherwise, the report is more in line with a recession.

Inventories were also up:

Inventories of manufactured durable goods in September, up fourteen of the last fifteen months, increased $1.2 billion or 0.4 percent to $340.2 billion. This was also at the highest level since the series was first stated on a NAICS basis in 1992 and followed a 0.8 percent August increase.

blogging stocks notes:

Given slowing international demand and the pullback in U.S. consumer spending, the manufacturing sector remains a major concern for policy makers: it's really hard for the U.S. economy to grow at an adequate rate without a healthy manufacturing sector

But policy makers concerned about manufacturing? Really?