FILE PHOTO: Containers await departure as crews load and unload consumer products at the Port of New Orleans along the Mississippi River in New Orleans, Louisiana June 23, 2010. REUTERS/Sean Gardner

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. economy is expanding at a 2.5 percent annualized rate in the fourth quarter, based on data on durable goods orders and home resales in October, the Atlanta Federal Reserve’s GDPNow forecast model showed on Wednesday.

This matched the pace for fourth-quarter gross domestic product that the Atlanta Fed’s GDP program calculated on Tuesday.

Following the release of the October durables goods data earlier Wednesday, the Atlanta Fed program calculated non-residential equipment investment growth slowed to 10.5 percent in the fourth quarter from an earlier estimate 11.5 percent.

The Commerce Department said durable goods orders fell 4.4 percent last month, following a downwardly revised 0.1 percent dip in September.

The Atlanta Fed GDP program reduced the projected drag from residential investment in the current quarter to 4.1 percent from a prior estimate of 6.3 percent after the National Association of Realtors’ figures on existing home sales in October.

The industry group said domestic home resales rose 1.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.22 million units last month, which was a tad faster than analysts’ forecasts.