Factory Orders Decline

Demand for big-ticket goods in April took its biggest nose-dive since late 1991, and consumer spending rose at its slowest pace in nine months, indicating yet again the speeding economy may be slowing a bit.

Orders to U.S. factories for costly manufactured goods fell 6.4 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $205.6 billion, pulled down by a record drop in demand for electronics, the Commerce Department said in one of two economic reports it released Friday.

Americans also pulled back somewhat in April from their generally free-spending ways, the second report showed.

Consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of economic activity and is the engine of the supercharged economy, rose 0.4 percent last month. That was the smallest increase since July.

At the same time, American incomes, a category that includes wages, interest and government benefits, grew by a brisk 0.7 percent, the second month in a row in which income went up faster than spending.