The markets are continuing their volatile nature.  The Dow was up triple digits, then down triple, and now back in green.  The S&P500 and Nasdaq are also back in the green.  The recent news that the president might be softening his approach to tariffs is helping propel the markets. 

Advancers led decliners 1920/952 on the NYSE and 1748/947 on the Nasdaq.  Materials and the Real Estate sectors are strong today while Consumer Staples, Health Care and Utilities lag.  Heavy machinery stocks; Caterpillar (CAT) and H&E Equipment Services (HEES) are helping to push the market higher.

Weakness in the U.S. dollar is lending support to silver (up 2.0%) and gold (up 1.05%). 

The only economic report today was Factory orders for manufactured goods, which in January, were down 1.4%, versus the consensus of -1.3%, led by durable goods orders, as business spending on equipment seems to be slowing as.   December was revised to 1.8% from 1.7%.  Excluding transportation, orders increased 0.4% compared to the revised December read of 0.9% from 0.7%.  

On a more positive note, non-durable goods were strong, up 0.8% driven by coal and petroleum. 

• Durable goods orders were down 3.6% led by a 10% decline in transportation equipment orders  
• Civilian aircraft orders were the main culprit, plunging 28%
• Computers and electronics products rose by 0.5%
• Total shipments increased to 0.6%
• Inventory-to-shipment ratio was steady at 1.35 for the third month in a row
• Non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft declined 0.3% (December was revised to -0.5 from -0.6)
• Shipments of non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft was down 0.1% (December revised to 0.7% from 0.4%)