Durable Goods Key Solid Gains

Stocks gained today as the markets embraced a positive report on durable goods and discounted a rise in oil as merely a short-term threat posed by Tropical Storm Gustav, MarketWatch reports. The Dow climbed 89.64 to 11,502.51, the Nasdaq gained 20.49 to close at 2,382.46, and the S&P 500 rose 10.15 to 1,281.66.

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Orders for durable goods rose 1.3% in July, beating expectations. Crude futures jumped by more than $3 but finished up just $1.88 with Gustav expected to strike oil production facilities in the Gulf of Mexico in the next few days. "It's good to see a session when oil has every reason to rise really strongly, and yet it doesn't," one trader said. (Read more Dow Jones stories.)