orders for longlasting goods rose again in april boosted by activity in the defense sector new orders for products meant to last at least three years including appliances computers cars and other manufactured goods increased 11 in april from the prior month to a seasonally adjusted 283 billion the commerce department said friday that was the second consecutive month of order growth after a revised 33 increase in march orders ticked down in the first two months of the year economists surveyed by the wall street journal had forecast a 08 drop in april excluding defense categories new orders were down 06 orders for defense aircraft shot up 327 in april from the prior month according to the commerce departments report defense capital goods orders also were up by more than a third compared with march orders for nondefense aircraft and parts meanwhile slid 83 overall capital goods orders were up 46 new orders for nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft  socalled core capitalgoods a closely watched proxy for business investment  were up 14 in april