WASHINGTON, District of Columbia (AFP) – New orders for U.S. manufactured goods fell 7.3 percent in July after three straight months of gains, the Commerce Department said Monday.

Total orders for the month were $226.6 billion, $17.8 billion below June’s figure.

The main source of the fall was a drop in orders for transportation equipment — notably often volatile civilian aircraft orders — which fell 19.4 percent to $69.7 billion.

Excluding transportation, however, new orders for durable goods were down 0.6 percent.

For the year to date, durable goods orders reached $1.525 trillion, up a modest 3.3 percent from the same period in 2012.