What started off to be another down day, turned around when President Trump said he would delay tariffs on automobiles from Europe for at least six months.  At midday, the major indices are firmly in the green.  Communications Services and Technology are among the best performing sectors.  Alphabet (GOOGL) helped lead the way higher after Deutsche Bank maintained its Buy rating on the stock and raised its target from $1300 to $1400.  The lone sector in the red is the Financials.

On the economic front, Industrial Production declined 0.5% in April following an upwardly revised 0.2% increase in March. Total capacity utilization fell to 77.9% from a downwardly revised 78.5% in March. This is the fourth consecutive month with no growth in manufacturing output.

Business inventories were flat in March, as anticipated, following an unrevised increase of 0.3% in February.  Business sales increased 1.6% following an upwardly revised increase of 0.2% in February. On a year over year basis, inventory growth is up 5.0% and is still outpacing sales growth of +3.7%.  This should help mitigate price pressure/inflation.

On the housing front, the weekly MBA Mortgage Application Index slipped 0.6% after an increase of  2.7% increase in the previous week.