Markets today: A durable goods report headlines a light data calendar

Factory demand opens the week. Durable goods orders for the prior month land before Monday’s bell, the only high-importance release on a light data calendar and the session’s clearest scheduled event. The report follows a mixed Friday that left the major averages split. No large-cap names Bellwize tracks are on the earnings slate.

On the calendar today

Durable goods orders headline. The durable goods orders report, a monthly gauge of new bookings for manufactured goods built to last three years or more, prints at 8:30 a.m. ET, ahead of the open. The headline figure is forecast at a 1.6% monthly gain, a swing up from the prior month’s 4.5% decline. Big-ticket orders are lumpy, and the month-to-month reading can move sharply on a single large contract. Stripped of transportation, where large aircraft and vehicle orders can dominate the total, the ex-transportation measure is penciled in at 0.9%, down from 1.3% the month before. Later, at 10:30 a.m. ET, the Dallas Fed manufacturing index offers a regional snapshot of factory activity in Texas; it read 0 in the prior survey, the level that marks the divide between expansion and contraction on the gauge. The durable goods print carries high importance; the two others rank medium.

Reporting today

No covered names report. The earnings calendar holds no companies from the large-cap group Bellwize tracks, leaving the economic data to carry the day’s scheduled events. Corporate results sit out the Monday session.

Backdrop

Stocks finished mixed on Friday. The S&P 500 edged up less than 0.1% to 7,411.98, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.5% to 51,947.25. The Nasdaq Composite lagged, down 0.6% at 24,975.82. The Cboe Volatility Index fell 0.86 point to 17.72, and the 10-year Treasury yield rose four basis points to 4.71%. The split left the blue-chip average higher and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lower heading into the new week.

What to watch

• Factory orders before the open. The durable goods report at 8:30 a.m. ET is the calendar’s lone high-importance release, with the headline forecast at 1.6% against a prior 4.5% drop.
• The core reading. The ex-transportation measure, forecast at 0.9%, strips out the swings that big-ticket transport orders bring to the top-line number.
• A regional factory gauge. The Dallas Fed manufacturing index at 10:30 a.m. ET rounds out the schedule, following a flat reading of 0 last month.

With no earnings on the docket, the scheduled data prints stand as Monday’s clearest events.

This is a general-market summary for information only — not investment advice, and not a recommendation regarding any security.