Summary: Stocks eased back from session highs, though remained in the green. The Dow Jones Industrial Average's march to 20,000 remained as elusive as ever with the index coming within 60 points of the milestone earlier in the session. U.S. manufacturing activity had a strong end to 2016. The U.S. ISM manufacturing index increased to a two-year high with both production and new orders on the rise. A separate reading from Markit hit a 21-month high. U.S. construction spending also surged at the end of last year. The metric rose by 0.9% in November, hitting a more than 10-year high. Ford announced plans to cancel a new $1.6 billion plant in Mexico. The automaker will instead invest $700 million in Michigan to expand existing facilities.
