Lousy durable goods orders

Not much positive in this morning's durable goods report for February, that's for sure. Overall orders gained just 2.5%, below expectations for a 3.5% rise. Strip out transportation and you get a 0.1% decline vs. forecasts for a 1.8% rise. Lastly, orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft dropped 1.2%. It's a mouthful, I know. But trust me when I tell you the market cares about this category because it's a good proxy of core business spending.