Stocks up globally, April durable goods orders rise

Asian markets took the baton from Wall Street overnight and continued the rally that U.S. stocks began in mid-afternoon yesterday.

The Nikkei and the Hang Seng both closed up with strong sessions. Europe has followed this morning, as the rally continues around the globe. London's FTSE, Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 are all up 2 percent on the day.

Here in the U.S., futures are up and stocks might take some cheer at opening from this morning's report on April durable goods orders, which was released moments ago and exceeded expectations.

According to the government, orders for durable goods in April -- that's everything from airplanes to refrigerators -- rose 2.9 percent, more than double expectations.

The March durable goods orders number was also revised upward significantly, up from 2.8 percent to 4.8 percent.

However, if you remove transportation goods from the number -- items like cars and airplanes -- then the April number actually went down 1 percent. It's a good bet the April number was goosed by lots of auto sales that were driven by heavy incentives. Also, Boeing and other airline companies delivered more planes.

Overall, this is not bad economic news. It says that, given incentives, consumers are willing to spend. We'll know more later this week, when April consumer spending numbers are released on Friday.

By Frank Ahrens | May 26, 2010; 9:00 AM ET

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