It was quiet on Wall Street Wednesday after the major indexes closed higher for a third day in a row.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 80 points, or 0.2%. The S&P 500 was down slightly. The Nasdaq Composite was down 0.3%.
The yield on the 2-year Treasury note was up to 4.01%. The 10-year yield was up to 4.34%.
“After weeks of heightened volatility, markets are relatively quiet for the second straight day,” writes Bespoke Investment Group co-founder Paul Hickey. “Enjoy the peace while it lasts!”
The only major report of the morning was orders for durable goods. The headline reading rose 0.9% to $289.3 billion. Economists polled by FactSet had anticipated a decline of 1%. Excluding transportation, new orders rose 0.7% compared to expectations at 0.25%.
Boock Report’s Peter Boockvar points out that non-defense capital goods, excluding aircraft orders, were down 0.3% in February following an upwardly revised 0.9% monthly gain in January.
“Bottom line, about every single regional manufacturing sector seen has reflected a drop in capital spending plans due to the lack of business visibility and today’s durable goods orders is hard data confirming the soft,” Boockvar writes.