Stocks rose, erasing earlier losses and closed out a volatile week positively, despite disappointing housing data. The Commerce Department showed purchases of new homes unexpectedly fell in February, a sign the recovery in the housing market is still weak. New home sales fell 1.6% to a 313,000 annual pace, the slowest since October, from a 318,000 rate in January.
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Breakfast Bites: Investor’s psyches already concerned over a slowdown in China and renewed worries over the euro zone's weakening economy did not get any help from the new home sales data this morning that fell short of expectations. While the S&P and Dow have logged 3 straight days of declines, let me put my glass on half full glasses and point out that the Dow is +6.5% for the year with the S&P and Nasdaq up +10.3% and 16.9% respectively.
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NYSE Euronext raised more global proceeds from Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) than any other global exchange group in 2011, with $33 billion from 104 IPOs. In the U.S., for the fifth consecutive year, NYSE Euronext continued to lead with 89 IPOs and also gained 16 listing transfers from other markets.
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Executives and guests of Vantiv, Inc., a leading integrated payment processor, visited the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to celebrate the company’s initial public offering. Vantiv began trading today on the NYSE under the ticker symbol “VNTV”.
In honor of the occasion, President and Chief Executive Officer Charles Drucker, joined by members of the company’s management team, rang the NYSE Closing Bell.
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Breakfast Bites: Manufacturing weakness / contraction in Europe and China has so far trumped some positive domestic data in the form of Jobless Claims, Consumer Comfort and Leading Indicators as investors remain wary of the Global picture
Jobless claims decreased by 5,000 to 348,000 in the week ended March 17, the fewest since February 2008
A gauge of European Manufacturing fell to 47.7 as factory output shrank in Germany and France
Chinese manufacturing slipped to 48.1 in March, the lowest level in 4 months
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