Construction spending during May was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,293.9 billion, 0.8% below the revised April estimate of $1,304.0 billion, the Census Bureau reported. The May figure is 2.3% below the May 2018 estimate of $1,324.3 billion. During the first five months of this year, construction spending amounted to $498.8 billion, 0.3% below the $500.3billion for the same period in 2018.

Yesterday, the Dow gained 117.47 points (0.44%) to finish at 26,717.43, the NASDAQ closed 84.92 points (1.06%) higher at 8,091.16, and the S&P 500 increased 22.57 points (0.77%) to 2,964.33. The Russell 2000 was up 3.09 points (0.20%) at 1,569.66, and the Wilshire 5000 climbed 217.45 points (0.72%) to 30,485.50.

The price of the 10-year Treasury note was down 2/32, increasing its yield to 2.031%. The price of the 30-year Treasury bond decreased 28/32, bringing its yield up to 2.556%.

ON THIS DATE: In 1776, Richard Henry Lee’s resolution that the American colonies “are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States” was adopted by the Continental Congress. In 1881, Charles J. Guiteau fatally wounded President James A. Garfield in Washington, D.C. In 1890, Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act. In 1926, Congress established the Army Air Corps. In 1937, American aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart disappeared in the Central Pacific during an attempt to fly around the world at the equator. In 1939, at Mount Rushmore, Theodore Roosevelt’s face was dedicated. In 1947, an object crashed near Roswell, New Mexico. The U.S. Army Air Force insisted it was a weather balloon, but eyewitness accounts led to speculation that it might have been an alien spacecraft. In 1962, Wal-Mart Discount City opened in Rogers, Arkansas. It was the first Walmart store. In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed the “Civil Rights Act of 1964” into law. In 1976, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the death penalty was not inherently cruel or unusual. In 1976, North Vietnam and South Vietnam were reunited.