Strong housing report boosts stocks

The Dow and the S&P 500 had their highset closing numbers since July, propelled by a surprisingly strong report on the housing market and the possibility of more money for the International Monetary Fund. The Dow rose 96 points to close at 12578, and the S&P gained 14 points to end the day at 1308.

|
Richard Drew/AP/File
Specialist Fabian Caceres works with traders at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. A pleasantly surprising report on the housing market and reports that the International Monetary Fund could get more cash to help countries struggling with debts propelled the Dow and the S&P 500 to their highest closes since July of last year.

A surprisingly strong report on the housing market and the prospect of more cash for the International Monetary Fund to fight off a financial crisis powered stocks Wednesday to their highest close since last summer.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index closed above 1,300 for the first time since July 28, and the Dow Jones industrial average finished at its highest since July 25. That was just before the bitter fight in Washington over the federal debt limit.

It was also the first time since Jan. 3, the first trading day of the year, that the S&P 500 moved more than 1 percent. The market has made a quiet ascent since then. The S&P is up 4 percent for the year, the Dow 3 percent.

"We think things are setting up to be better than last year," said Brad Sorensen, director of market research at Charles Schwab. "The worst-case scenario is off the table."

The National Association of Home Builders index, a measure of sentiment among builders, rose to its highest level since June 2007 as sales jumped. Analysts said it could be a sign the housing market has bottomed out.

The index is rising because builders are seeing a rise in people shopping for a home, not because they are seeing more sales, at least not yet. Those in a position to buy are benefiting from lower prices and mortgage rates.

Stocks of home construction companies jumped. PulteGroup Inc. rose 6 percent, Toll Brothers Inc. rose 5 percent, and KB Home rose 8 percent.

In another encouraging sign, the Federal Reserve said manufacturing rose 0.9 percent from November to December, the biggest gain since December 2010.

Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF, said the fund wanted to raise $500 billion more to lend to countries. The IMF has put up roughly a third of the rescue loans to debt-hobbled European countries over the past two years.

Investors are eager for signs that the world can contain Europe's debt problem. Besides an already likely recession in Europe, a messy default by Greece or another country could lead to a financial crisis around the globe.

In other trading, Goldman Sachs stock added almost 7 percent after its quarterly profit beat Wall Street expectations. Net income still fell 58 percent in the last three months of 2011, a result of choppy financial markets.

Some bank stocks followed Goldman higher. Morgan Stanley, another investment bank, rose 6.8 percent. Bank of America rose 4.9 percent, JPMorgan Chase 4.7 percent and Citigroup 2.9 percent.

Other financial stocks sank after disappointing earnings reports. State Street Corp. plunged 6.6 percent, the largest fall in the S&P 500. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. fell 2.6 percent, and Northern Trust Corp. slipped 2 percent.

The Dow finished up 96.88, or 0.8 percent, at 12,578.95. The S&P rose 14.37, or 1.1 percent, to 1,308.04. The Nasdaq composite index, which has outperformed the other two this year, rose 41.63 points, or 1.5 percent, to 2,769.71.

Among other stocks making large moves Wednesday:

Yahoo climbed 3 percent on news that co-founder Jerry Yang is leaving the struggling Internet pioneer. The departure clears the way for newly hired CEO Scott Thompson to take more radical action to shake up the company.

Amphenol Corp., which makes fiber-optic cables, soared 11 percent. Its earnings that beat analysts' expectations, and the company said strong orders should push next year's earnings above Wall Street forecasts.

Linear Technology Corp., which makes circuits, jumped 11 percent, most in the S&P 500. It expects quarterly revenue to rise 4 to 8 percent following strong demand in December and January. It also raised its dividend by a penny to 25 cents a share.

Cash America International Inc., a payday lender and operator of pawnshops, sank 6 percent after cutting its earnings forecast.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Strong housing report boosts stocks
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0118/Strong-housing-report-boosts-stocks
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe