Stock Market News for June 28, 2012 - Market News
June 28 2012 - 5:06AM
Zacks
Encouraging economic readings on
housing and factory orders combined to lift the markets into the
green for the second consecutive day. Investors did keep in mind
lingering euro-zone debt woes ahead of the European Summit, but
domestic sentiment and the strength in energy shares overshadowed
cross-Atlantic worries.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average
(DJI) gained 0.7% and was up to 12,627.01. The Standard & Poor
500 (S&P 500) surged 0.9% and finished yesterday’s trading
session at 1,331.85. The tech-laden Nasdaq Composite Index settled
0.7% or 21.26 points higher at 2,875.32. The fear-gauge CBOE
Volatility Index (VIX) moved marginally lower, by 1.4% to settle at
19.45. Total volumes on the New York Stock Exchange were 3.29
billion shares. Advancers outpaced the decliners on the NYSE; as
for 76% stocks that gained, 21% stocks closed lower.
For the second time in a row
benchmarks ended in the green, thanks to positive domestic economic
data. The National Association of Realtors came out with data on
pending home sales, which matched the highest level recorded over
the last two years. According to the report, the Pending Home Sales
Index jumped to 101.1 in May, up 5.9% from 95.5 in April. This was
also 13.3% higher than the year-ago level of 89.2 and the rate of
increase far outpaced consensus expectations of a jump of 1.8%.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, sounded positive on the housing
sector saying: “The housing market is clearly superior this year
compared with the past four years. The latest increase in
home contract signings marks 13 consecutive months of
year-over-year gains.” “Actual closings for existing-home sales
have been notably higher since the beginning of the year and we’re
on track to see a 9 to 10 percent improvement in total sales for
2012,” he added.
Buoyed by the positive data, SPDR
S&P Homebuilders (XHB) jumped 1.8% and stocks including Lennar
Corp. (NYSE:LEN), PulteGroup, Inc. (NYSE:PHM), KB Home (NYSE:KBH),
Toll Brothers Inc. (NYSE:TOL), DR Horton Inc. (NYSE:DHI), Hovnanian
Enterprises Inc. (NYSE:HOV) and Beazer Homes USA Inc. (NYSE:BZH)
gained 4.8%, 1.7%, 3.0%, 3.9%, 2.3%, 5.2% and 4.4%,
respectively.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of
Commerce also reported positive factory order numbers. According to
a report by the U.S. Census Bureau, new orders for manufactured
durable goods jumped 1.1% or $2.3 billion in May to $217.2 billion.
The upside in new orders came after two back-to-back months of
declines and also outpaced consensus estimates of an increase of
just 0.3%.
Separately, an uptick in oil prices
helped energy shares clock up gains. Posting a strong performance,
the Energy Select Sector SPDR (XLE) jumped 2.0% and stocks such as
Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX), Nabors Industries Ltd. (NYSE:NBR),
NRG Energy Inc (NYSE:NRG), Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation
(NYSE:COG), Berry Petroleum Company (NYSE:BRY) and Tesoro
Corporation (NYSE:TSO) soared by 1.6%, 5.6%, 6.0%, 9.0%, 8.2% and
2.0%, respectively.
Luckily, there were no major
headlines from the other side of the pond that could dent the
positive sentiment. Investors did keep in mind lingering woes in
the Euro-zone ahead of the European Summit that commences on
Thursday. Meanwhile, German Chancellor was reported to have warned
that there might not be any immediate fix for the “structural
measures.” She said: "I fear that at [the summit] there will again
be far too much talk about all possible ideas for common liability
and far too little about better controls and structural
measures".
BERRY PETROLEUM (BRY): Free Stock Analysis Report
BEAZER HOMES (BZH): Free Stock Analysis Report
CABOT OIL & GAS (COG): Free Stock Analysis Report
CHEVRON CORP (CVX): Free Stock Analysis Report
D R HORTON INC (DHI): Free Stock Analysis Report
HOVNANIAN ENTRP (HOV): Free Stock Analysis Report
KB HOME (KBH): Free Stock Analysis Report
LENNAR CORP -A (LEN): Free Stock Analysis Report
NABORS IND (NBR): Free Stock Analysis Report
NRG ENERGY INC (NRG): Free Stock Analysis Report
PULTE GROUP ONC (PHM): Free Stock Analysis Report
TOLL BROTHERS (TOL): Free Stock Analysis Report
TESORO CORP (TSO): Free Stock Analysis Report
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