U.S. stocks closed modestly lower Wednesday, after paring deeper losses, as weak housing data and grim outlook from tech companies fuelled worries about the economy.  Stocks struggled to stay near the 13-month high reached the prior session as jittery investors decided to book profits.  Gold prices rose for the fourth straight session.

The Dow, which had slid as much as 77 points in the morning trading, closed down 11.11 points, or 0.1%, to 10,426.31.  The broader S&P 500 index slipped 0.52, or 0.1%, to 1,109.80, while the Nasdaq, hurt by the weakness in tech shares, fell 10.64, or 0.5%, to 2,193.14.  Bond prices fell, pushing yields higher. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 3.37% from 3.33% late Tuesday.  Crude prices advanced 44 cents to settle at $79.58 per barrel.  Volume remained light, with only 1.063 billion shares trading on the NYSE, and declining issues ahead

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U.S. stocks ended mixed Wednesday after a late-session profit taking almost wiped off a 156-point rally in the Dow average that was fueled by the Fed’s encouraging assessment of the economy and its decision to keep interest rates low for an extended period.  The optimism was short-lived as investors appeared jittery ahead of the October jobs report on Friday. Fresh concerns over bank earnings resurfaced after the House of Representatives passed a bill curbing credit card rate increases.

After the house vote, financials slumped 1.5% and led the decliners among the S&P 500 industry groups.  Analyst Meredith Whitney noted the biggest U.S. banks may face declining values on home-loan bonds with government backing as the Fed moves towards ending its $1.25 trillion purchase program.  Whitney said bank earnings are far from approaching "normalcy," and will reflect regulatory changes for an extended period.  JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) fell 1.2% to $42.21 and

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Pulte Homes (PHM) reported a net loss of $361.4 million or $1.15 per share, inclusive of approximately $86.7 million of charges and transaction costs associated with its merger with Centex Corporation and $163.8 million in inventory impairments and other land-related charges. This compares to a net loss of $280.4 million, or $1.11 per share, including impairments and land-related charges of $266.6 million in the third quarter of 2008. The company continues to suffer from economic weakness, foreclosures, rising unemployment and recent uncertainty over the expiration of the federal tax credit -- all of which negatively impact buyer behavior. Segment Performance Revenue from Homebuilding settlements shrank 27% to $1.1 billion. The decline in revenue reflected a 23% decrease in closings to 4,166 homes, coupled with a 10% decrease in average selling price to $253,000. However, revenue and closings for the period benefited from the inclusion of ...

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 61 points on Thursday as traders reacted to news that retailers last month had their first sales gain in more than a year.  A closely watched gauge of sales at major retailers rose 0.1% in September. Still, most stores posted sales declines -- though smaller than in recent months -- even as their figures are compared with last September when business plummeted as the financial meltdown ballooned.  While still tepid, it was the first monthly rise in the International Council of Shopping Centers-Goldman Sachs tally since July 2008. 

On Thursday, the European Central Bank and Bank of England left interest rates unchanged.  Sentiment also received a boost from domestic corporate borrowing, which rose for the eight straight week. 

The growing optimism surrounding consumer spending, which is crucial for an economic recovery, followed late Wednesday's good results from Alcoa.  The company surprised investors with

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – September 17, 2009 – Zacks.com releases the latest Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks featured in this week’s analysis include D.R. Horton (DHI), KB Home (KBH), Pulte Homes (PHM), Allstate (ALL), Hartford Financial Services (HIG), Travelers (TRV), Loews (L), Humana (HUM), Stericycle (SRCL), C.R. Baird (BCR), Celgene (CELG), Gilead Sciences (GILD), Anadarko Petroleum (APC), EOG Resources (EOG), AK Steel (AKS), Nucor (NUE), U.S. Steel (X), Fifth Third (FITB), Regions Financial (RF), Suntrust Banks (STI) and Zions Bancorp (ZION).

Zacks Industry Rank Analysis is written by Charles Rotblut, CFA, Senior Market Analyst for Zacks.com.

This week: Third-Quarter Earnings Forecast

Though the economy has stabilized, third-quarter results for the majority of companies will still be below year prior levels.

Per share profits for the S&P

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Though the economy has stabilized, third-quarter results for the majority of companies will still be below year prior levels.

Per share profits for the S&P 500 are projected to fall 15.4%. The median company is forecast to report a 14% drop in per share earnings. (The difference being that the S&P 500 forecast is a weighted projection.) More than 340 companies may have experienced a year-over-year drop in profits.

On a revenue basis, things are not much better. Median company sales are forecast to have dropped 7.2%.* More than 360 companies are expected to report a year-over-year drop in earnings.

It's important to realize that during July and August 2008, the economy was in fairly good shape. Lehman did not collapse until September 2008. Furthermore, the credit crunch's grip severely tightened over the 2-month span of September and October 2008. As a result, many companies are now facing tough

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It was a day of mixed economic and earnings reports Monday but markets held on to gains and edged up slightly as shares seesawed through the session.  Although sentiments got a boost after data showed a surprise rise in new home sales, trading remained subdued as some weaker earnings reports and lowered guidance kept investors on the sidelines. 

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 15.27 points, or 0.2%, to 9,108.51 and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index edged up 2.92 points, or 0.3%, at 982.18.  The Nasdaq rose 0.1% or 1.93 points, at 1,967.89.  Treasuries declined as the government began a record auction of $115 billion in notes. Yield on the benchmark 10-year jumped to 3.72%.  On the NYSE, 1.04 billion shares exchanged hands and advancing issues outpaced decliners by a two-to-one margin.     

Lowered guidance from Aetna (NYSE:AET) and Honeywell (NYSE:HON) were digested by investors as offsetting those

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – July 28, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Pulte Homes (PHM), D.R. Horton (DHI), Beazer (BZH), Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog:

More Good News in Housing

Keep in mind that the inventory data (and the sales numbers, for that matter) is a raw number and is not normalized by population growth. For well over a year now, my housing mantra has been, "more new starts bad, more new home sales good."

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In June, new home sales shot up by 11.0% relative to May. The seasonally adjusted annual rate was 384,000 up from 346,000. Granted, that is still 21.3% below the 488,000 level a year ago -- and not even in the same area code as the peak of almost 1.4 million back in late 2005 (see the first chart from http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/, which is the source of all three charts in this post). Still it is a very good sign. Just as importantly, the level of inventories continues to drop, with 282,000 houses available for sale, down 2.8% from May and down 35.2% from a year ago. This has dropped the months-of-supply metric to just 8.8 months from 10.2 in May and 10.7 months a year ago (see the second graph). While this is still well above the 6.0 months that would indicate a healthy market (months of supply ...

The markets were up today led by energy stocks as oil settled at $72.68.  The Dow Jones was up 0.37% closing at 8770.92, with the S&P up 0.61% closing at 944.89.  The NASDAQ was up 9.29 closing at 1862.37.  Treasury prices were down as the yield closed at 3.862%.  Gold settled at $962.00 as the dollar continues to weaken against other currencies. 

In major news today, Bank of America [BAC: 12.97, +0.99 (+8.26%)] CEO Ken Lewis appeared at the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to talk about BofA’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch.  Lawmakers wanted to know from Lewis why a deal that was approved by shareholders in December with no government aid, wound up costing $20 billion dollars to taxpayers, for completion in January.  Lawmakers also questioned Lewis about knowing about losses at Merrill earlier then reported, as internal e-mails in the Fed suggested.  Some have speculated that Lewis

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