Investors were in for an onslaught of economic news today. The Department of Commerce released its Advance Report on Durable Goods for November today, and it turns out that new orders for durable goods decreased 1.3 percent. Click here to see the full report. The Department also released the New Residential Sales numbers for single-family houses in November 2010. This held better news as the report (found here) showed a 5.5 percent increase from October’s sales. Unfortunately, we are still 21.2 percent below November 2009 levels.
A .3 percent increase in personal income during November along with a .4 percent increase in personal consumption expenditures (see the report here) and a 3,000 claim decrease in new jobless claims (full press release found here) rounded out the positive economic news on Thursday.
Regardless of the relatively good news, U.S. markets were lukewarm. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 13.93 points to 11.573.42 while the Nasdaq fell 5.88 points to 2,665.60. The S&P 500 fell 2.07 points to 1,256.77.
European markets were mixed today while Asian markets were down.
Stocks in the news: Jo-Ann Stores Inc (NYSE: JAS), Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE: DB), Comcast Corp (NASDAQ: CMCSA).
