There weren’t many new economic revelations today. The Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey from Mortgage Bankers Association was released and it did not bring good news for the housing sector, although that wasn’t completely unexpected. According to the report (which you can find here), mortgage loan applications decreased by .9 percent last week. This is just another figure to add to the list of indications that recovery in the housing sector will probably continue to be slow going at least through 2011.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was all over the map today, as insecurity over the potential extension of the Bush tax cuts along with employment and housing market concerns played with investor confidence. The Dow did end up gaining 13.32 points to 11,372.48. The Nasdaq rose 10.67 points to 2,609.16 and the S&P 500 climbed 4.53 points to 1,228.28.
European and Asian markets were mixed today with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fallng 1.43 percent despite the success of two Chinese technology IPOs, YoukuCom Inc (NYSE: YOKU) and E Commerce China Dangdang Inc (NYSE: DANG).
Stocks in the news: MasterCard Inc (NYSE: MA), Fortune Brands Inc (NYSE: FO), Pepsico Inc (NYSE: PEP).
