Markets Close Up, Foreclosures Soar, Financial Sector Slumps

Indexes closed positive today across the board, in a lack luster session, on stronger than expected home sales and consumer sentiment beating expectations. The DJIA climbed +21.41 to 11370.69, the Nasdaq bounced +30.42 to 2310.53 and the S&P 500 advanced +5.22 to 1257.76.

General Electric
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climbed .14% or $0.04 to $28.75 and announced a complete restructuring of the company.

Ryland Group
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fell 3.92% or $0.84 to $20.59 after exceeding analysts estimates for second quarter loss for the home builder.

Washington Mutual
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dropped 4.71% or $0.19 to $3.84 after Piper Jafrey advised selling.

Citibank
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gave back 1.10% or $0.21 to $18.85/share after Bill Gross speculated that the housing pull back will cost banks over one trillion.

Gold climbed $4.00 to $926.80, oil added $0.97 to $125.41 and natural gas slipped $0.48 to $9.31.

Market Snapshot

Dow

+23.93 11632.38

NASDAQ

+21.92 2325.88

S&P 500

+5.19 1282.19

Economic
News

Leading Indicators (Jun): Consensus -0.1%, Prior 0.1%

Crude Inventories (Jun): Consensus NA, Prior 2952K

Fed’s Beige Book

Initial Claims (07/19): Consensus 380K, Prior 366K

Existing Home Sales (Jun): Consensus 4.95M, Prior 4.99M

Durable Orders (Jun): Consensus -0.3%, Prior 0.0%

Mich Sentiment-Rev (Jul): Consensus 56.4, Prior 56.6

New Home Sales (Jun): Consensus 505K, Prior 512K

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