A PICK UP IN FACTORY ORDERS:

Durable goods orders rose 3.3% month over month,beating expectations of 1.3% growth. While the volatile headline number was driven by aircraft orders, orders for non-defense, ex-aircraft capital goods, a proxy for business investment, rose 1.2%. The Kansas City Fed’s activity index rose to 2 from-5 last month and the Flash Manufacturing PMI posted at 51.9, indicating modest manufacturing growth.