Home Sales Surge, Stocks Rally, Oil Down Steep

Bargain hunters taking advantage of dirt cheap housing prices pushed the Home Sales numbers to their most aggressive monthly gain since 2002. Strong earnings from multiple companies triggered a nice across the board rally in the stock market. However, weak Consumer Confidence figures pushed oil prices down steeply. The DJIA rallied +58.70 to 8174.73, the tech heavy Nasdaq pushed ahead +15.44 to 1504.90 and the broad based market barometer S&P 500 added +9.14 to 845.71.

U.S. Steel
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– The Pittsburgh based steel giant climbed 7.16% to $2.11 to $31.57/share after reporting 4th quarter profits crushing analysts estimates.

Netflix
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– Soared 15.62% or $4.71 to $34.86/share upon announcing a buy back and advising of strong 2009 revenue projections.

Zions Bancorp
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– Jumped 15.50% or $1.89 to $14.08/share after positive words from an analyst.

Delta Airlines
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– Plummeted 20.14% or $2.00 to $7.93/share upon posting a greater loss than estimated.

Oil dropped steeply $4.15 to $41.91, gold fell $9.30 to $901.40 and the fear index VIX dipped 7.53% to 42.25.

Market Snapshot

Dow

+58.70 8174.73

NASDAQ

+15.44 1504.90

S&P 500

+9.14 845.71

Economic
News

Existing Home Sales (Dec): Consensus: 4.40M, Prior: 4.49M

Leading Indicators (Dec): Consensus: -0.3%, Prior: -0.4%

Consumer Confidence (Jan): Consensus: 38.0, Prior: 38.0

S&P/CaseShiller Composite (Nov): Consensus: NA, Prior: -18.04%

Crude Inventories (Jan. 23): Consensus: NA, Prior: 6.1 min

FOMC Rate Decision (Jan. 28): Consensus: NA, Prior: 0-0.25

Durable Orders (Dec): Consensus: -1.8%, Prior: -1.5%

Initial Claims (Jan. 24): Consensus: 575K, Prior: 589K

New Home Sales (Dec): Consensus: 400K, Prior: 407K

Chain Deflator-Adv. (Q4): Consensus: 0.6%, Prior: 3.9%

GDP-Adv. (Q4): Consensus: -5.4%, Prior: -0.5%

Chicago PMI (Jan): Consensus: 34.0, Prior: 34.1

Mich Sentiment-Rev (Jan): Consensus: 61.9, Prior: 61.9

Employment Cost Index (Q4): Consensus: 0.7%, Prior: 0.7%