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Despite fears of the European debt crisis and Greece?s continuing bailout problem, positive U.S. economic data in the employment and housing sectors helped drive the Dow Jones Industrial Average up nearly one percent, 123.06 points. to close at 12,904.01. ?People know and are still fearful of the European Union crisis, but we?re seeing that investors can look past that when they see positive economic news out of the United States,? said Douglas DePietro, head of trading at Evercore Partners. CNNMoney tells MHProNews.com the Nasdaq gained +1.51 percent to 2,959.85, while the S&P rose 1.10 percent to end the day at 1,358.04. The Yahoo! Finance Manufactured Housing Composite lost -2.62 percent percent to finish at 967.60. Tracked housing stocks closed mixed. Universal Forest Products, Inc. bolted +13.38 percent, +4.35, to 36.85. Nobility Homes slid the most of tracked stocks, falling 14.90 percent, -1.17, to close at 6.68. Affiliated Managers Group 106.95 +2.44 (+2.33%). Cavco Industries 51.75 -1.43 (-2.69%). Clayton Homes, Vanderbilt Mortgage and Finance, as well as MH home-building, lending and other housing suppliers parent company Berkshire Hathaway 118,340 +1,430.00 (+1.22%). Champion, Liberty Homes, Deer Valley and Palm Harbor all remained unchanged. Drew Industries 29.84 +1.14 (+3.97%). Louisiana Pacific Corp. 8.10 +0.19 (+2.40%). Patrick Industries was unchanged at 5.71. Skyline Corporation 7.55 +0.27 (3.71%). Sun Communities 40.77 +0.84 (+2.10%). Third Avenue Value Fund (2-15) 47.14 +0.76 (+1.64%). UMH Properties 10.5 +0.24 (+2.33%).

(Graphic credit: CNNMoney and RealTick)

Source: http://www.mhmarketingsalesmanagement.com/blogs/daily-business-news/dow-solid-ufpi-spikes-nobility-slides/

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WASHINGTON ? Construction of single-family homes cooled off slightly in January after surging in the final month last year. But a rebound in volatile apartment construction kept builders working.

The Commerce Department says builders broke ground on a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 699,000 homes in January.

Construction began on 508,000 single-family homes last month, a 1 percent drop from December and the first decline in four months. Still, December single-family homes were revised up strongly to show builders started 513,000 homes. That’s up from the initial estimate of 470,000, a difference of 9 percent.

Apartment building, a more volatile category, jumped 14.4 percent. Building permits, a gauge of future construction, rose 0.7 percent.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120216/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/us_housing_starts

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LONDON ? Britain’s inflation rate fell to 3.6 percent in the year to January from 4.2 percent the previous month, official figures showed Tuesday, to the likely relief of cash-strapped households which have seen muted pay increases more than eaten up by rising prices.

The figure published by the Office for National Statistics on Tuesday was in line with expectations and put inflation below 4 percent for the first time since December 2010. The fall came as last year’s sales tax increase dropped out of the annual comparison. Lower fuel prices also contributed to the decline.

The U.K. consumer price inflation (CPI) rate peaked at 5.2 percent in September.

Though inflation has been running above the Bank’s 2 percent target since December 2009, rate-setters have kept borrowing costs at record low levels and recently approved another monetary stimulus in response to falling output ? recent figures showed the U.K. economy contracted 0.2 percent in the last three months of 2011.

The central bank has held its policy line despite elevated inflation rates, arguing that price pressures would diminish this year. Markets will be interested to see if Wednesday’s quarterly economic projections from the bank show inflation falling below target later this year.

Many economists think that’s a distinct possibility and that the Bank will back even more stimulus in the months ahead.

Last week’s announcement that the Bank will be splashing out another 50 billion bounds ($79 billion) in asset purchases raised the total monetary stimulus since the program started in March 2009 to 325 billion pounds.

The hope is that by increasing the amount of money in the financial system, the purchases, known as quantitative easing or QE, will loosen credit for businesses and raise asset prices. Quantitative easing can be inflationary, but analysts say the bank has room to act.

Howard Archer, chief European economist at IHS Global Insight, said inflation could fall to 2 percent by the end of the year.

“We believe the improving inflation backdrop will give scope to the Bank of England to provide further stimulus to the economy,” said Archer, who is predicting another 50 billion pounds stimulus in May.

Meanwhile, James Knightley, analyst at ING Bank, said inflation could drop to 1 percent by year-end.

“Inflation expectations tend to follow actual inflation and, given that the CPI appears to be heading sharply lower, we expect inflation expectations to do likewise,” he said.

“This should further limit the risk of above-target inflation becoming entrenched, with workers unlikely, and unable given rising unemployment, to push for larger pay rises.”

Wage increases have remained moderate despite high inflation, rising just 2 percent per year in the latest survey.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120214/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_britain_economy

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The?Huffington Post has surveyed corporate donors on whether they plan to keep supporting Susan G. Komen for the Cure despite the controversy over its relationship with Planned Parenthood. Of the 35 companies that responded to the survey, nearly all said they would continue the relationship, though some expressed concern that the charity had taken a political stand.

In other Komen news,?Reuters analyzed the charity?s financial statements and found that?the charity spends about half as much proportionally on research into the causes and treatment of breast cancer as it did four years ago.

The foundation has increased its spending on science in absolute dollar terms, but at a far lower rate than the growth in its revenue, the news service found.

In the year ending March 31, Komen spent $63-million on research, about 15 percent of its overall expenditure, down from 17 percent each of the previous two years and 29 percent in fiscal 2008. The charity reported that 43 percent of its 2011 revenues went to education efforts.

The firestorm over Komen?s financial relationship with Planned Parenthood has increased scrutiny of how the cancer charity spends the hundreds of millions of dollars it raises annually. Critics in the science and activist communities have long argued that Komen focuses on advocacy and awareness at the expense of research.

The foundation receives a high rating from independent groups such as Charity Navigator for its financial performance. In a statement to Reuters, Komen spokeswoman Leslie Aun said the charity spends 83 percent of its money on mission programs and is ?the only organization doing breast cancer on all these fronts?in research, global work, advocacy, and community work.?

A science and medicine correspondent for Forbes asserts that training more of its resources on developing cancer drugs would help Komen heal its bruised image. While Komen has poured tens of millions of dollars into research, its ?impact has not been as big as it might have been,? Matthew Herber says.

Nancy Brinker, Komen?s founder, offered her first detailed comments since the foundation reinstated Planned Parenthood grants in a letter to Washington Post columnist Sally Quinn.

Read a Chronicle of Philanthropy article on the controversy?s fundraising impact on both orgnizations.

Source: http://philanthropy.com/blogs/philanthropytoday/corporate-donors-continue-support-for-komen/44593

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NEW YORK (Reuters) ? January has turned out to be strong for stocks with just two trading days to go. If you’re afraid to miss the ride, there’s still time to jump in. You just might want to wear a neck brace.

The new year lured buyers into growth-related sectors, the ones that were more beaten down last year. The economy is getting better, but not dramatically. Earnings are beating expectations, but at a lower rate than in recent quarters. Nothing too bad is coming out of Europe’s debt crisis — and nothing good, either — at least not yet.

“No one item is a major positive, but collectively, it’s been enough to tilt it towards net buying,” said John Schlitz, chief market technician at Instinet in New York.

Still, relatively weak volume and a six-month high hit last week make some doubt that the gains are sustainable.

But then there’s the golden cross.

Many market skeptics take notice when this technical indicator, a holy grail of sorts for many technicians, shows up on the horizon.

As early as Monday, the rising 50-day moving average of the S&P 500 could tick above its rising 200-day moving average. This occurrence — known as a golden cross — means the medium-term momentum is increasingly bullish. You have a good chance of making money in the next six months if you put it to work in large-cap stocks.

In the last 50 years, according to data compiled by Birinyi Associates, a golden cross on the S&P 500 has augured further gains six months ahead in eight out of 10 times. The average gain has been 6.6 percent.

That means the benchmark is on solid footing to not only hold onto the 14 percent advance over the last nine weeks, but to flirt with 1,400, a level it has not hit since mid-2008.

The gains, as expected, would not be in a straight line. But any weakness could be used by long-term investors as buying opportunities.

“The cross is an intermediate bullish event,” Schlitz said. “You have to interpret it as constructive, but I caution people to take a bullish stance, if they have a short-term horizon.”

GREECE, U.S. PAYROLLS AND MOMENTUM

Less than halfway into the earnings season and with Greek debt talks over the weekend, payrolls data this week and the S&P 500 near its highest since July, there is plenty of room for something to go wrong. If that happens, the market could easily give back some of its recent advance.

But the benchmark’s recent rally and momentum shift allow for a pullback before the technical picture deteriorates.

“We bounced off 1,325, which is resistance. We’re testing 1,310, which should be support. We are stuck in that range,” said Ken Polcari, managing director at ICAP Equities in New York.

“If over the weekend, Greece comes out with another big nothing, then you will see further weakness (this) week,” he said. “A 1 (percent) or 2 percent pullback isn’t out of the question or out of line.”

On Friday, the S&P 500 (.INX) and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) closed their fourth consecutive week of gains, while the Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) dipped and capped three weeks of gains. For the day, the Dow dropped 74.17 points, or 0.58 percent, to close at 12,660.46. The S&P 500 fell 2.10 points, or 0.16 percent, to 1,316.33. But the Nasdaq gained 11.27 points, or 0.40 percent, to end at 2,816.55.

For the week, the Dow slipped 0.47 percent, while the S&P 500 inched up 0.07 percent and the Nasdaq jumped 1.07 percent.

A DATA-PACKED EARNINGS WEEK

This week is filled with heavy-hitting data on the housing, manufacturing and employment sectors.

Personal income and consumption on Monday will be followed by the S&P/Case-Shiller home prices index, consumer confidence and the Chicago PMI — all on Tuesday.

Wednesday will bring the Institute for Supply Management index on U.S. manufacturing and the first of three key readings on the labor market — namely, the ADP private-sector employment report. Jobless claims on Thursday will give way on Friday to the U.S. government’s non-farm payrolls report. The forecast calls for a net gain of 150,000 jobs in January, according to economists polled by Reuters.

On the earnings front, it will be another hectic week with almost a fifth of the S&P 500 components posting quarterly results. Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), Amazon (AMZN.O), UPS (UPS.N), Pfizer (PFE.N), Kellogg (K.N) and MasterCard (MA.N) are among the names most likely to grab the headlines.

With almost 200 companies’ reports in so far, about 59 percent have beaten earnings expectations — down from about 70 percent in recent quarters.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak and Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Jan Paschal)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120129/bs_nm/us_usa_stocks_weekahead

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