The latest economic data pointed to a stronger-than-expected reading on U.S. capital goods data for February.
Orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending plans, jumped 1.8 percent last month in its biggest gain in five months. Economists had forecast a gain of only 0.8 percent.
In a surprise move, Trump made a threat to veto a newly passed $1.3 trillion spending bill by Congress, raising the specter of a possible government shutdown ahead of a midnight Friday deadline to keep federal agencies open.
At 10:26 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 72.12 points, or 0.3 percent, at 24,030.01, the S&P 500 was up 2.15 points, or 0.081326 percent, at 2,645.84 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 21.18 points, or 0.3 percent, at 7,145.50.
Dropbox Inc is set to make its long-awaited trading debut on the Nasdaq after the cloud storage company topped expectations with the upsized price of its initial public offering.
This article was provided by Reuters.