Orders to factories for big-ticket manufactured goods rose modestly in February, helped by a rebound in sales of commercial aircraft and autos, the Associated Press reported.

The U.S. Commerce Department reported today that demand for durable goods rose 2.5 percent last month after having plummeted 9.3 percent in January. The huge January decline, the biggest in 6½ years, was one of the factors that triggered a one-day drop of 416 points in the Dow Jones industrial average as investors grew worried that the economy was slowing abruptly.

Even with the February rebound, which was smaller than the 3.5 percent gain that Wall Street was expecting, the report continued to raise worries about the health of the manufacturing sector. Outside of the volatile transportation sector, orders were down 0.1 percent, the fourth decline in this category in the past five months.