New orders for manufactured durable goods in April decreased $5.4 billion or 2.1% to $248.4 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau announced. This decrease, down two of the last three months, followed a 1.7% March increase. Excluding transportation, new orders were virtually unchanged. Excluding defense, new orders decreased 2.5%. Transportation equipment, also down two of the last three months, drove the decrease, $5.4 billion or 5.9% to $85.4 billion.

Tuesday, the Dow increased 512.40 points (2.06%) to 25,332.18, the NASDAQ surged 194.10 points (2.65%) to 7,527.12, and the S&P 500 closed 58.82 points (2.14%) higher at 2,803.27. The Russell 2000 climbed 38.58 points (2.62%) to 1,508.56, and the Wilshire 5000 gained 646.29 points (2.29%) to finish at 28,904.96.

The price of the 10-year Treasury note was down 5/32, increasing its yield to 2.123%. The price of the 30-year Treasury bond decreased 1 27/32, bringing its yield up to 2.604%.

ON THIS DATE: In 1752, Benjamin Franklin flew a kite for the first time to demonstrate that lightning was a form of electricity. In 1851, Harriet Beecher Stow published the first installment of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” in “The National Era.” In 1924, Ernst F. W. Alexanderson transmitted the first facsimile message across the Atlantic Ocean. In 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the bill that took the U.S. off of the gold standard. In 1947, U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall gave a speech at Harvard University in which he outlined the Marshall Plan. In 1981, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported that five men in Los Angeles were suffering from a rare pneumonia found in patients with weakened immune systems. They were the first recognized cases of what later became known as AIDS. In 1998, Volkswagen AG won approval to buy Rolls-Royce Motor Cars for $700 million. In 2004, the U.S.S. Jimmy Carter was christened in the U.S. Navy in Groton, Connecticut.

WEDNESDAY WISDOM: “There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full.”—Henry Kissinger, U.S. Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the presidential administrations of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford