U.S. Home Sales Fall 0.6% in March, Stocks on Wall Street Zigzag

Nichole Harper
22 Apr, 2013
New York City

Stocks on Wall Street meandered. Existing home sales declined 0.6% in March but media price rose 11.8%. Power-One soared 57% after ABB Ltd agreed to acquire the company for $1 billion.

[R]12:40 PM New York – Stocks on Wall Street meandered. Existing home sales declined 0.6% in March but media price rose 11.8%. Power-One soared 57% after ABB Ltd agreed to acquire the company for $1 billion.[/R]

On Wall Street market indexes turned positive after dropping as much as 0.6% after previously occupied home sales declined in March and the dollar dipped against the yen.

The S&P 500 index increased 0.2% to 1,558.17 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the narrow index of 30 large companies, declined 0.2% to 14,522.11.

The Nasdaq Composite Index increased 0.6% to 3,223.73.

ABB Ltd the Switzerland based power technology agreed to acquire solar photovoltaic inverters maker Power-One Inc. for approx $1 billion.

Share of Power- One surged 57% to $6.43 on the deal news.

Existing Home Sales Fall 0.6%

Sale of existing homes declined in March by 0.6% to 4.92 million annual rate, according to the data released by the National Association of Realtors.

Home sales in February had jumped 10.3% compared to the previous year month.

Inventory of existing homes for sales increased 1.6% to 1.93 million units, representing a supply of 4.7 months at March’s sales pace from the 4.6 in February.

Nationwide median home resale price increased to $184,300, up 11.8% from a year year ago month, the largest increase since November 2005.

The share of distressed sales in the month declined to 21% of home for sale last month, down from 25% in the previous month.

European Markets

European indexes marginally higher on the first day of the week followed by gains on Friday. Philips shares fall 5.19%, as first quarter profit declines.

Nearly 1,700 Lufthansa flights were grounded today after the airline faced a strike.

In London trading, the FTSE 100 rose 0.08% or 4.86 to 6,291.45. The DAX in Frankfurt inched 0.29% to 7,481.95. In Paris, the CAC 40 added 0.13% or 4.68 to 3,656.64.

France and Spain both missed their budget deficit targets in 2012, as austerity bite harder, the Eurostat said Monday.

In Paris, the 2012 deficit was 4.5% of gross domestic product, higher than the 4.5% target.

Madrid reported budget deficit of 7.1% against initial targets of 6.3%, and higher than 6.8% reported in December.

Last year, the euro zone budget deficit declined to 3.5% of GDP from 4.2% in 2011. The deficit is forecast to shrink 2.8% in the current year.

News Corp’s directors agreed to pay $139 million in settlement of claims from investors after they ignored illegal activities at the media company including phone hacking by employees.

Asian Markets

Stocks in Tokyo accelerated the gains and the benchmark Nikkei index closed at a new 5-year high after real estate and financial services companies led the gainers.

The yen weakened to 99.61 against one dollar.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average jumped 251.89 or 1.9% to 13,568.37 and market indexes in Hong Kong gained 0.1% and in Mumbai added 0.8%.