Pulte Merges, UBS Settles, Stocks Rebound

  • August 18, 2009
  • David Goodboy

The stock market bounced back after yesterday’s sharp sell off. Good news from the retail earnings front and a report that single family home construction actually grew powered the rebound. Further adding to the enthusiasm, giant home builder Pulte announced the successful acquisition of fellow behemoth Centex. On another uplifting note, off shore banking monster UBS, announced that a settlement is pending with the Feds for accusations of tax evasion assistance to the ultra wealthy. The DJIA gained +82.60 to 9217.94, the Nasdaq marched higher +25.08 to 1955.92 and the broad based S&P 500 climbed +9.94 to 989.67.

American Express
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Home Depot
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J Crew
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James Hardie
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Oil eased higher by $2.44 to $70.09, gold added $3.40 to $939.20 and the fear index VIX fell 6.10% to 26.19 as the market breathes a sigh of relief.

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Market Snapshot

Dow

 +82.60 9217.94

NASDAQ

 +25.08 1955.92

S&P 500

 +9.94 989.67

Economic
News

Empire Manufacturing (Aug): Consensus: 3.00, Prior: -0.55

Net Long-Term TIC Flows (Jun): Consensus: $17.5B, Prior: -$19.8B

Building Permits (Jul): Consensus: 576K, Prior: 570K

Core PPI (Jul): Consensus: 0.1%, Prior: 0.5%

Housing Starts (Jul): Consensus: 598K, Prior: 582K

PPI (Jul): Consensus: -0.2%.0B, Prior: 1.8%

Crude Inventories (08/14): Consensus: NA, Prior: +2.52M

Initial Claims (08/15): Consensus: 553K, Prior: 558K

Leading Indicators (Jul): Consensus: 0.6%, Prior: 0.7%

Philadelphia Fed (Aug): Consensus: -2.0, Prior: -7.5

Existing Home Sales (Jul): Consensus: 5.00M, Prior: 4.89M

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