Friday, July 24, 2009

Dow above 9,000 as upbeat home data ignites bulls

NEW YORK - A stronger-than-expected report on United States home sales helped re-energise bulls on Wall Street yesterday, boosting hopes for a recovery of the ailing housing sector and the overall economy.

Just before noon in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 164.75 points, or 1.9 per cent, at 9,046.01, as the blue-chip index topped the 9,000 mark for the first time since January.

The technology-rich Nasdaq composite jumped 38.51 points, or 2 per cent, to 1,964.89 and the broad Standard & Poor's 500 index advanced 19.34 points, also 2 per cent, to 973.41.

The market, which has been riding a wave of better-than-expected corporate earnings reports, found a new catalyst when the National Association of Realtors said sales of existing US homes rose 3.6 per cent to an annualised rate of 4.89 million units in June, better than the consensus analyst forecast of 4.83 million.

Mr Joel Naroff at Naroff Economic Advisors said: "Investors are looking for reasons to believe earnings will rise going forward and a turn in the housing market can only improve expectations." AFP

Source: Today, 24 July 2009

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