Stocks Surge, Drugs Rally, Home Sales Surprise

• February 3, 2009
• David Goodboy

The stock market surged across the board today on the heels of surprisingly good news in the Pending Home Sales figure and strong earnings from the drug sector. The Pending Home Sales figure had its first increase in 4 months, as consumers begin to take advantage of favorable mortgage rates and relatively cheap prices. Merck and Schering-Plough posted better than expected earnings due to effective cost cutting measures, further adding fuel to today’s rally. The DJIA surged 141.53 to 8078.36, the tech heavy Nasdaq climbed 21.87 to 1516.30, and the broad based S&P 500 advanced 13.07 to 838.51.

DH Horton
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United Parcel Service
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Merck
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SanDisk
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Oil added 95 cents to $41.03, gold slipped $7.00 to $900.20 and the VIX fear index gave back 5.30% to 43.06.

Market Snapshot

Dow +141.53 8,078.36 NASDAQ +21.87 1,516.30 S&P 500 +13.07 838.51

Economic News

Personal Income (Dec): Consensus: -0.4%, Prior: -0.4%, Revised From: -0.2% Personal Spending (Dec): Consensus: -0.9%, Prior: -0.8%, Revised From: -0.6% Construction Spending (Dec): Consensus: -1.2%, Prior: -0.6% ISM Index (Jan): Consensus: 32.5, Prior: 32.4 Pending Home Sales (Dec): Consensus: 0.0%, Prior: -4.0% Auto Sales (Jan): Consensus: NA, Prior: NA Truck Sales (Jan): Consensus: NA, Prior: NA ADP Employment Change (Jan): Consensus: -515K, Prior: -693K ISM Services (Jan): Consensus: 39.0, Prior: 40.1 Crude Inventories (Jan. 30): Consensus: NA, Prior: 6.2M Initial Claims (Jan. 31): Consensus: 592K, Prior: 588K Productivity-Prel (Q4): Consensus: 1.0%, Prior: 1.3% Unit Labor Costs (Q4): Consensus: 3.0%, Prior: 2.8% Factory Orders (Dec): Consensus: -3.0%, Prior: -4.6% Average Workweek (Jan): Consensus: 33.3, Prior: 33.3 Hourly Earnings (Jan): Consensus: 0.3%, Prior: 0.3% Nonfarm Payrolls (Jan): Consensus: -500K, Prior: -524K Unemployment Rate (Jan): Consensus: 7.5%, Prior: 7.2% Consumer Credit (Dec): Consensus: -$2.3B, Prior: -$7.9B