February Home Sales Declined 0.9%; U.S. Stocks Struggle

Nichole Harper
21 Mar, 2012
New York City

U.S. stock indexes edged lower and existing home sales declined 0.9% in February. Median home price inched up 0.3% and inventory of unsold homes rose 4.3% to 2.43 million units, 19.3% from a year ago level.

[R]10:25 AM New York – U.S. stock indexes edged lower and existing home sales declined 0.9% in February. Median home price inched up 0.3% and inventory of unsold homes rose 4.3% to 2.43 million units, 19.3% from a year ago level.[/R]

U.S. stock indexes were little changed in the early trading after February existing home sales declined and crude oil held firm and market indexes edged lower in Asia and in Europe.

February existing home sales declined 0.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.59 million from an upwardly revised 4.63 million in January. The home sales were up 8.8% from a year ago 4.22 million-unit in February 2011.

Median home price for existing homes increased 0.3% from a year ago month to $156,600 and distressed home sales that includes foreclosures and short sales accounted for 34% of all sales, down from 39% in the month a year ago.

Glencore to Acquire Viterra

Glencore International plc, the Switerland based commodities giant agreed to acquire Canada based grain storage provider Viterra, Inc. for C$16.25 a share in cash or C$6.1 billion.

The offer price represents a 48% premium to Viterra''s closing share price of C$10.98 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on March 8, the day prior to Viterra announcement that it had received expressions of interest regarding a potential deal.

Bond Yields Fall in Europe

Sovereign bond yields in European trading eased after Germany and Portugal sold bonds following a successful offering from Spain a day ago.

Germany sold €5 billion of 0.25 percent notes due in March 2014 at an average yield of 0.31% compared with 0.25% at the last auction on February 22.

Portugal sold €1.61 billion of March 22 2013 Treasury bills at an average yield of 3.652%, down from 4.943% at the previous auction on February 15.

Stock Movers

Jabil Circuit Inc. edged up 1 cent to $26.50 and the electronics assembly contractor reported fiscal second quarter revenues increased 7.8% from a year ago to $4.24 billion and net income increased 3.8% to $102.6 million.

The company guided fiscal third quarter revenues between $4.2 billion and $4.4 billion and operating earnings to increase 10% between $185 million and $205 million.

Hartford Financial Services soared more than 5.6% to $2.89 after the insurer said the company will focus on property and casualty insurance, mutual funds and group benefits and leave the annuity business.

Hewlett Packard Company declined 1.2% to $23.69 after the company merged its printer and personal computer business that is likely to lead to more job losses and consolidation of production facilities.

Oracle Corp gained more than 1.1% to $30.44 after the software and hardware company reported sales of new database software licenses accelerate in the third quarter.