Wall Street Surges on Encouraging Housing, Banking Data
Reassuring news about housing and banking Monday gave investors a reason to return to the stock market.
The Dow Jones industrial average shot up more than 180 points, making up more than half the losses it suffered last week. All the major indexes rose more than 2 percent.
A better-than-expected profit report from Lowe’s Cos. and positive comments from analysts about the nation’s banks revived investors’ confidence in an economic rebound. Stocks fell sharply last week on worries that a recovery might be further off than hoped. The drop interrupted a rally that has left the Standard & Poor’s 500 index up 30.5 percent since early March.
Stocks resumed their climb Monday after Lowe’s, the nation’s second-largest home improvement chain, posted earnings that easily beat Wall Street’s forecasts and the company raised its full-year profit outlook. Buying accelerated later after the National Association of Home Builders said its housing market index rose for the second month in a row in May, reflecting growing optimism among builders. That was an encouraging sign for the market that activity in the housing industry could be picking up.
Meanwhile, Rochdale Securities analyst Richard Bove noted the potential for “explosive earnings growth and unusually strong stock price performance” for banks as the economy recovers. And Goldman Sachs raised its rating on Bank of America Corp. to “Buy” on expectations for solid earnings in the second quarter on strong mortgage and capital markets revenue.
BMO Capital Markets also upgraded its view of the banking industry, anticipating that profits will start to rebound in coming quarters.
Steep drops in home values have been at the heart of the economy’s troubles, slicing into consumers’ wealth and saddling banks with huge losses. Analysts believe that stability in the housing and banking industries are imperative for the economy to rebound.
“There’s a realization that things are going to get better,” said James Cox, managing partner at Harris Financial Group. “That’s the main theme of the market over the last couple of weeks.”
In late afternoon trading, the Dow rose 187.73, or 2.3 percent, to 8,456.37. The S&P 500 index rose 20.63, or 2.3 percent, to 903.51, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 41.95, or 2.5 percent, to 1,722.09.
Investors also were pleased that State Street Corp. became the latest bank to turn to the capital markets to raise money. The commercial bank said it expects to raise about $1.45 billion through a stock offering as part of an effort to repay a $2 billion government loan that came as part of the financial rescue program last fall.
Analysts say the ability of banks to raise cash is a welcome sign of strength, even if the introduction of added shares makes those already in circulation worth somewhat less.
“The banks are stable,” Cox said. “We’re not going to see any of the large banks go down. And now that we have stabilization in the banking system, we can move forward.”
State Street rose $2.58, or 6.7 percent, to $41.09. Bank of America rose 96 cents, or 9 percent, to $11.63.
Last week, the Dow slid 3.6 percent, the S&P 500 index lost 5 percent and the Nasdaq fell 3.4 percent as a weak retail sales report and an uptick in job losses had investors questioning the merits of a two-month rally off of 12-year lows.
Despite Monday’s bounce, analysts expect the market to remain volatile as investors look for signs that the economy is starting to recover, not simply slowing in its descent. At the start of the market’s upswing after March 9, signs of stabilization were enough to encourage investors to buy stocks.
Wall Street will be looking this week to a housing construction report on Tuesday and regional manufacturing data on Thursday.
“Everyone is trying to decipher the information as these reports come out,” said Alan Villalon, senior research analyst at First American Funds. “Is there more evidence that we’re in a recovery or still in contraction mode?”
In other trading, the Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 15.46, or 3.3 percent, to 491.30.
About six stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 931.9 million shares.
Lowe’s rose $1.33, or 7.2 percent, to $19.77 after posting its results.
Oil prices shot up $2.67 to $59.01 as investors made bets that demand would be strong throughout the summer driving season, which kicks off this weekend with the Memorial Day holiday. This helped push energy stocks higher. Marathon Oil Corp. jumped $1.37, or 4.8 percent, to $29.76, while Consol Energy Inc. rose $2.56, or 7.4 percent, to $36.95.
Indian stocks rocketed an unprecedented 17 percent after investors saw election results in the country as paving the way for economic reforms. Infosys Technologies Ltd. rose $2.58, or 8.1 percent, to $34.60, while Sify Technologies Ltd. rose 28 cents, or 22 percent, to $1.57.
Bond prices slipped, pushing the yield on the 10-year Treasury note — a widely used benchmark for home mortgages and other loans — up to 3.22 percent from 3.14 percent late Friday.
The dollar fell against other major currencies. Gold prices also fell.
Stocks overseas were mixed following weak corporate earnings reports in Asia. Japan’s Nikkei stock average fell 2.4 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 jumped 2.3 percent, Germany’s DAX index rose 2.4 percent, and France’s CAC-40 rose 2.4 percent.
5/18/2009 3:40 PM SARA LEPRO AP Business Writer NEW YORK