The Rowdy Business Wire 07-19-11

Tuesday's Business Wire offered further verification that the real estate market is on the road back, however bumpy a path that may be. Oh and it of course included all the usual bumbling and rambling of Tea Party (the rowdy Republicans) Congressional members outside the White House. Hey good news though, all this accusatory language going back and forth is a sure sign of a pending deal on the debt ceiling, as the politicians from all sides of the unsound table seek to earn credit for the eventual deal.

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Business Wire

Housing Starts
More real estate data reached the wire Tuesday. The Housing Starts tally was reported for June. Starts measure the beginning of construction, and this month’s report showed they increased 14.6% over May, to an annual pace of 629K. Starts also grew impressively 16.7% over June of 2010. Year-to-year comparisons have been hard to beat until now, and so the case for second half housing growth is reinforced.

Housing Permits authorized for construction in June grew 2.5% over May, to an annual pace of 624K. Permits were also up against the prior year rate of 585K. This is good news for housing stocks, and the SPDR S&P Homebuilders (NYSEArca: XHB) was up 2.7% as a result.

Weekly Same-Store Sales
This week’s same-store sales data covered the week ending July 16. The period saw same-store sales gain 0.4% against the immediately preceding period. On a year-to-year basis, sales rose 4.5%, slower than the prior week’s 5.5% comparison; Redbook had yearly sales up 3.8% for the same period.

Gold
Gold was down today, but only after surmounting $1600 over the weekend. Gold for August delivery fell $19 an ounce to about $1583 at the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. It seems today’s ground gain toward an agreement on the debt ceiling has gold correcting already.

Oil
Near contract WTI Crude Oil was priced at $97.71 in midday trading Tuesday, up about 1.9%, apparently on expectations of dollar weakness. Oil is priced in dollars and so as the dollar weakens the price rises.

DC Doings
The House of Representatives voted and passed legislation Republicans affectionately call “Cut, Cap and Balance.” It stands for the cutting of spending, the capping of U.S. government debt and the amending of the Constitution to require the federal government to balance its budget the way the states do. The GOP-led extreme measures will not likely get through the Senate, but if it does, the President has already promised to veto it.

Kansas City Fed President Thomas Hoenig addressed a group in Kansas City as he discussed monetary policy and agriculture.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) finalized additional financial reform regulations.

Corporate Wire
News Corp. (NYSE: NWS, Nasdaq: NWSA) execs testified testily before the U.K. Parliament with regard to their subsidiary’s alleged phone hacking. Rupert Murdoch called it the “most humbling day of his life.”

The day’s EPS schedule highlighted data from Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), Altera (Nasdaq: ALTR), Coca Cola (NYSE: KO), Intuitive Surgical (Nasdaq: ISRG), Forest Laboratories (NYSE: FRX), State Street (NYSE: STT), A.O. Smith (NYSE: AOS), AEHR Test Systems (Nasdaq: AEHR), AMCON Distributing (AMEX: DIT), AptarGroup (NYSE: ATR), Aspen BioPharma (Nasdaq: APPY), Ameriserv (Nasdaq: ASRV), Bancfirst (Nasdaq: BANF), Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE: BK), Beneficial Mutual (Nasdaq: BNCL), China Technology and Development (Nasdaq: CDTC), Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG), Cintas (Nasdaq: CTAS), Comerica (NYSE: CMA), Community Trust Bancorp (Nasdaq: CTBI), Crown Holdings (NYSE: CCK), Cybex International (Nasdaq: CYBI), CSX (NYSE: CSX), Dearborn Bancorp (Nasdaq: DEAR), ESB Financial (Nasdaq: ESBF), Fidelity National Information (NYSE: FIS), Fortinet (Nasdaq: FTNT), Fulton Financial (Nasdaq: FULT), Harley Davidson (NYSE: HOG), Heartland Express (Nasdaq: HTLD), Infinera (Nasdaq: INFN), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Keycorp (NYSE: KEY), Knoll (NYSE: KNL), Life Partners (Nasdaq: LPHI), Manhattan Associates (Nasdaq: MANH), Marten Transport (Nasdaq: MRTN), Mattson Technology (Nasdaq: MTSN), McMoran Exploration (NYSE: MMR), Mercantile Bank (Nasdaq: MBWM), Mueller Industries (NYSE: MLI), NB&T Financial (Nasdaq: NBTF), Omega Flex (Nasdaq: OFLX), Omnicom (NYSE: OMC), Peabody Energy (NYSE: BTU), Pinnacle Financial Partners (Nasdaq: PNFP), Platinum Underwriters (NYSE: PTP), Polaris Industries (NYSE: PII), Pulaski Financial (Nasdaq: PULB), Qiao Xing Mobile (NYSE: QXM), Renasant (Nasdaq: RNST), River Valley Bancorp (Nasdaq: RIVR), Riverbed Technology (Nasdaq: RVBD), Riverview Bancorp (Nasdaq: RVSB), State Street (NYSE: STT), Sterling Bancshares (Nasdaq: SBIB), Stryker (NYSE: SYK), Taubman Centers (NYSE: TCO), TD Ameritrade (Nasdaq: AMTD), Tessco (Nasdaq: TESS), United Rentals (NYSE: URI), UnitedHealth (NYSE: UNH), VMware (NYSE: VMW), W.W. Grainger (NYSE: GWW), Waste Connections (NYSE: WCN), Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC), Westamerica Bancorp (Nasdaq: WABC), Westfield Financial (Nasdaq: WFD) and Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO).

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