After a sluggish start in the first half hour, stocks finally got going. Dow is up 61, advancers over decliners 2-1 & NAZ is up 7. The housing news while bad, was not as bad as some feared. They decided to grab stocks at bargain levels. VISA is planning to have a $19B public offering, the largest in history. Plus rumors about Ambac (ABK) getting a bail out from a group of banks was encouraging.
The housing news was not all that great. A large supply of unsold houses remains & mortgages are tougher to get after all the problems with sub prime loans. An offset is the economic stimulus package which should help later in the year. The VISA offering is encouraging that there are buyers for stocks, but it might divert purchases away from stocks trading in the markets. Lowes (LOW) reported an earnings decline from the prior year qtr ending Feb 1 & painted a gloomy forecast for this year which they call "challenging" in a slumping housing market. The stock market has had low volume recently which makes each announcement that much more important.
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