Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The market is trying to overcome early weakness. The S&P 500 is fractionally higher now and the equal-weighted S&P 500 shows a 0.1% gain.

Factory orders rose 0.6% month-over-month in February (Briefing.com consensus 0.4%) after increasing an upwardly revised 1.8% (from 1.7%) in January. Excluding transportation, factory orders were up 0.4% after increasing 0.3% in January. Shipments of manufactured goods were up 1.2% after increasing 0.7% in January.

The key takeaway from the report is that new orders for nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft, which are considered a proxy for business spending, decreased 0.2% despite the headline beat.

Durable goods orders rose 1.0% after increasing 3.4% in January, led by a 12.7% jump in gas field machinery orders.