October 17, 2012- Stocks Close Higher with Subdued Interest

While buying interest was relatively subdued, stocks moved mostly higher over the course of the trading day on Wednesday. Upbeat housing data helped to push the markets higher despite the release of some mixed earnings news. The major averages all ended the day in positive territory, although the Dow inched up only 5.22 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 13,557.00. The Nasdaq edged up 2.95 points or 0.1 percent to 3,104.12, while the S&P 500 rose 5.99 points or 0.4 percent to 1,460.91. The modest strength on Wall Street was largely due to a positive reaction to a report from the Commerce Department showing a substantial increase in housing starts in the month of September. The report said housing starts jumped 15 percent to an annual rate of 872,000 in September from the revised August estimate of 758,000. Economists had expected starts to climb to 765,000 from the 750,000 originally reported for the previous month. With the much stronger than expected monthly growth, the annual rate of housing starts reached its highest level since July of 2008.