Wall Street capped slightly higher on Tuesday, after a housing report showed pending home sales surged by the largest margin since 2001.
The National Association of Realtors said on Tuesday the number of Americans signing contracts to buy previously-owned homes climbed 6.7 percent in April, the largest monthly jump in nearly eight years. Investors read it as a sign that the housing market is stabilizing.
Financial stocks, however, weighed on the big board. JPMorgan said late Monday it plans to raise five billion U.S. dollars to help repay a 25-billion-dollar government loan. Morgan Stanley fell after the sixth largest U.S. banks by assets announced plans to raise 2.2 billion dollars by selling common stocks. Moreover, American Express is seeking to raise 500 million dollars. The market worried that capital-raising actions would dilute current shareholders.
In technology news, data storage company EMC Corp. offered late Monday to buy Data Domain Inc. for 1.8 billion dollars, or 30 dollars per share. Data Domain surged nearly 20 percent.
In addition, major automakers reported May auto sales data on Tuesday. Ford said its May sales dropped 24.2 percent, while General Motors, which filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday, saw a 29-percent decline of sales in May. Both are better than expected.
The Dow Jones rose 19.43, or 0.22 percent, to 8,740.87. Broader indexes also tiptoed higher. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 1.87, or 0.20 percent, to 944.74, and the Nasdaq rose 8.12, or 0.44 percent, to 1,836.80.
Source:Xinhua
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