Wall Street managed to pick itself up off the mat thanks to an early-morning rally stoked by positive economic data and corporate earnings, then additional momentum after Ben Bernanke in front of Congress.
The S&P Case-Shiller home price index showed that home prices jumped 6.8% year-over-year in December. Meanwhile, the Conference Board’s index of consumer confidence increased in February.
At the end of the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.84% to close at 13,900.96, the S&P 500 rose 0.61% to 1,496.94 and the Nasdaq closed higher by 0.43% at 3,129.65.
Housing-related stocks naturally headed higher Tuesday. The SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (NYSE:) gained nearly 3%, with strong single-stock performances coming from Hovnanian (NYSE:, +11.4%), KB Home (NYSE:, +7.2%) and PulteGroup (NYSE:, +5.7%).
Home improvement retailer Home Depot (NYSE:) , showing a 7% gain in same-store sales for the fourth quarter. HD stock rose over 5% on the day to lead all Dow components. Sectormates Lumber Liquidators (NYSE:, +5.5%) and Lowe’s
(NYSE:, +2%) also headed higher.
Department store chain Macy’s (NYSE:) rose just less than 3% after it announced net sales rose in the fourth quarter to $9.4 billion from a year earlier and that same-store sales rose 3.7% for the year, higher than its initial forecast of a 3.5% gain.
Electronics retailer RadioShack (NYSE:) announced lower Q4 revenues and earnings and suggested it would have to . RSH shares initially dipped on the news, reversed to gains of more than 3%, then finally settled in at a fractional improvement.
Earnings notables for Wednesday include Groupon (NASDAQ:), JCPenney (NYSE:) and Target (NYSE:).
Three Up
- Cracker Barrel (NASDAQ:): up 8.7% ($5.80) to $72.75.
- R.R. Donnelley (NASDAQ:): Up 6.3% (61 cents) to $10.37.
- Radian Group (NYSE:): Up 3.4% (28 cents) to $8.43.
Three Down
- Vivus (NASDAQ:): Down 12.3% ($1.52) to $10.89.
- First Solar (NASDAQ:): Down 4.2% ($1.38) to $31.36.
- Teradata (NYSE:): Down 3.7% ($2.35) to $60.46.
Marc Bastow is an Assistant Editor at InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
