New orders for manufactured durable goods in August, down following two consecutive monthly increases, decreased $0.1 billion or virtually unchanged to $338.6 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau announced today. This followed a 0.9 percent July increase. Excluding transportation, new orders increased 0.3 percent. Excluding defense, new orders increased 0.1 percent. Transportation equipment, down three of the last four months, drove the decrease, $0.7 billion or 0.6 percent to $114.1 billion.