The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI 0.56%) is up 125 points late in trading after yesterday's sell-off on a few good news items. The Conference Board's Leading Economic Index was released today and it rose 0.3% from June, indicating that the economy should grow over the next few months. This is really just a combination of a lot of economic data that the Conference Board uses to create one easily digestible number, but it's also fairly accurate at predicting the economic direction short-term.

One of the more notable movers on the Dow is Boeing (BA -0.24%), who announced new sales just days before reporting earnings on July 23.

A rendering of Boeing's 737 MAX. Source: Boeing.

Boeing continues sales momentum
At the Farnborough International Airshow Airbus and Boeing both announced solid sales that continue momentum for their industry. Boeing said it had orders for 201 planes valued at $40.2 billion at list prices. Airbus took orders for 496 new airplanes valued at $75 billion.  

The largest order for Boeing was a 50 777-9X order from Qatar Airways, which was a reconfirmation of an earlier order, although Boeing didn't count an option for another 50 airplanes in its order book.

Airbus was set up to perform better in the short term because it launched the A330neo family of airplanes, which are meant to compete with the 787 Dreamliner.

The sheer numbers here are what's important to keep an eye on. Boeing itself predicts that airplanes in service will jump from 20,910 in 2013 to 42,180 in 2033, meaning orders of about $5.2 trillion in new airplanes. Whether Boeing takes more share than Airbus or not, that's a huge growth market for Boeing.  

Boeing isn't cheap at 22 times trailing earnings, but we'll find out next week whether it will pick up enough growth to justify that price. Analysts are expecting $22.4 billion in revenue and $2.01 in earnings per share, and Boeing has soundly beat estimates over the past year.

I wouldn't bet against such a growing market, especially now that the worst of the 787 Dreamliner problems appear to be behind Boeing.