Dow Jones: +103 at 12,909
S&P 500: +9 at 1,373
NASDAQ Composite: +33 at 2,943
LONDON (SHARECAST) - Signs of life in the US housing market and further pledges from Federal Reserve chairman to provide more stimulus measures should the US economy need it encouraged investors to chase prices higher on Wednesday for the second day in succession.
Housing starts rose 6.9% in June to an annualised rate of 760,000. This was better than the market had expected.
Since the financial crisis in 2008 the US housing market has been in free-fall but the suggestion it may be bottoming out has implications for the rest of the US economy, in particular on consumer confidence.
The release of the Federal Reserve's Beige Book tempered gains somewhat, as it revealed more districts - three, up from one in the last Beige Book survey - are experiencing a slowdown in growth.
House builders retreat
Despite the better than expected housing data house builders such as PulteGroup and Lennar fell back.
Fibre-optic cable maker Amphenol was the best performing blue-chip as it raised earnings guidance for the year to as much as $3.44 a share from its previous guidance of no more than $3.38.
Building maintenance supplies distributors WW Grainger also notched up a double digit percentage gain as it too raised earnings per share guidance for the year, at least at the bottom end of the range which has been lifted to $10.50 from $10.40 previously.
Tech stocks in demand
Chip maker Intel powered ahead after publishing profits that beat analyst expectations, although the company also lowered full year sales guidance, reflecting insipid demand for desktop and laptop PCs.
Industrial conglomerate Honeywell was up after figures showed significant growth at its aeronautics division. A ramp up in production at Boeing and Airbus was the main reason for the increase.
Cloud computing specialist EMC was wanted after a board room shuffle that will see Paul Maritz, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of EMC subsidiary VMware, become EMC's chief strategist. Meanwhile, Pat Gelsinger, President and Chief Operating Officer of Information Infrastructure Products at EMC will take over as VMware CEO. David Goulden, EMC's Chief Financial Officer (CFO), becomes EMC's President and Chief Operating Officer, while keeping the CFO gig.
Other markets
West Texas intermediate crude for August delivery rose 65 cents to $89.87 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
US Treasury prices edged higher with the yield on the 10-year bond easing to 1.49% from 1.50% the day before.
S&P 500 - Risers
Amphenol Corp. (APH) $58.94 +14.76%
W.W. Grainger Inc. (GWW) $210.57 +11.43%
EMC Corp. (EMC) $25.08 +9.42%
JDS Uniphase Corp. (JDSU) $9.29 +7.65%
F5 Networks Inc. (FFIV) $98.59 +7.44%
Honeywell International Inc. (HON) $58.18 +6.67%
Juniper Networks Inc. (JNPR) $15.21 +6.59%
Citrix Systems Inc. (CTXS) $81.52 +6.45%
Salesforce.Com Inc. (CRM) $134.90 +6.40%
NetApp Inc. (NTAP) $30.26 +6.03%
S&P 500 - Fallers
Bank of America Corp. (BAC) $7.53 -4.92%
American Tower Corp (Reit) (AMT) $70.10 -4.01%
St Jude Medical Inc. (STJ) $37.75 -3.80%
Genworth Financial Inc. (GNW) $5.12 -3.40%
PulteGroup Inc. (PHM) $10.80 -3.31%
Fidelity National Information Services Inc. (FIS) $33.13 -3.21%
Family Dollar Stores Inc. (FDO) $66.43 -2.87%
Allergan Inc. (AGN) $87.52 -2.70%
Lennar Corp. Class A (LEN) $30.38 -2.47%
Morgan Stanley (MS) $13.99 -2.44%
Dow Jones I.A - Risers
Intel Corp. (INTC) $26.21 +3.27%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $16.70 +2.90%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $30.45 +2.66%
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) $188.25 +2.50%
Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) $19.30 +2.28%
3M Co. (MMM) $90.87 +2.12%
Dow Jones I.A - Fallers
Bank of America Corp. (BAC) $7.53 -4.92%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $64.82 -0.81%
American Express Co. (AXP) $58.29 -0.66%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $43.94 -0.57%
Nasdaq 100 - Risers
Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (CHKP) $48.75 +6.86%
Citrix Systems Inc. (CTXS) $81.52 +6.45%
NetApp Inc. (NTAP) $30.26 +6.03%
KLA-Tencor Corp. (KLAC) $48.70 +5.82%
Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) $13.06 +5.58%
Maxim Integrated Products Inc. (MXIM) $25.27 +4.77%
Linear Technology Corp. (LLTC) $31.00 +3.92%
Xilinx Inc. (XLNX) $32.01 +3.63%
Fastenal Co. (FAST) $44.88 +3.58%
eBay Inc. (EBAY) $40.46 +3.56%
Nasdaq 100 - Fallers
Virgin Media Inc. (VMED) $24.88 -1.66%
Whole Foods Market Inc. (WFM) $92.54 -1.36%
Apollo Group Inc. (APOL) $30.63 -1.23%
Wynn Resorts Ltd. (WYNN) $96.29 -1.10%
Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) $53.30 -0.80%
Biogen Idec Inc. (BIIB) $144.96 -0.65%
J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. (JBHT) $54.87 -0.51%
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