STOCKS rose moderatelyyesterday after a better-than-expected jump in new home sales and an increase in the profit outlook for shipping giant FedEx Corp.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 74 points in midday trading, moving back into the black for the year.

Major stock indexes rose after the Commerce Department said sales of new homes increased to an annual rate of 330,000 units in June. The gain came after sales hit a record low in May. The sales came in ahead of the estimates of economists polled by Thomson Reuters.

Analysts said the unexpected jump in sales was a positive sign for a beleaguered housing market.

"Even though the data was soft, it was better than economists expected and that was the first time that has happened in awhile," said Jeffrey Kleintop chief market strategist for LPL Financial.

The home sales gain gave investors a glimmer of hope for the embattled housing market and sent prices for homebuilders higher. D.R. Horton Inc., Lennar Corp. and Toll Bros. Inc. rose more than 2 percent after the report.

Sales had fallen sharply in May after a tax credit for home buyers expired at the end of April. Investors have been concerned that the credit was propping up the housing market and that sales would stay at low levels now that buyers have fewer incentives.
FedEx gave the market more encouraging news about the economy by raising its earningsforecast. Like UPS Inc., FedEx is seen as an economic bellwether since companies tend to ship more when their orders increase. FedEx said it was seeing better than expected growth in its overnight and ground delivery businesses.

Stocks have rallied in recent days as more companies reported strong second-quarter results and improved outlooks for the coming quarters.

"There's been too much negativism priced in and we're coming off that," said Brian Gendreau, market strategist at Financial Network Investment Corp. "Earnings reports are definitely helping."

In midday trading, the Dow rose 73.72, or 0.7 percent, at 10,498.34. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 10.07, or 0.9 percent, to 1,112.73, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 20.79, or 0.9 percent, to 2,290.26.

About seven stocks rose for every two that fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 354.3 million shares.

Bond prices dipped after the housing report. The yield on the 10-year note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 3.03 percent from 3.00 percent late Friday. That yield helps set interest rates on mortgages and other consumer loans.

D.R. Horton rose 38 cents, or 3.5 percent, to $11.23. Lennar jumped 61 cents, or 4.1 percent, to US$15.54, while Toll Bros. rose 52 cents, or 3 percent, to US$17.99. FedEx jumped US$4.50, or 5.7 percent, to US$83.46.

Investors are watching a key technical level on the S&P 500 of 1,110. Pushing above that level would indicate optimism is growing in the market. However if the market cannot climb and hold above that level, it could lead to a pullback, analysts said. The S&P briefly rose above 1,110 earlier in the day.

Earnings reports are likely to be a big driver of trading again this week as hundreds more companies in the S&P 500 release results.

Earnings results due out Tuesday from oil company BP will be closely watched because of reports that CEO Tony Hayward will step down and that the company could take a big charge to cover costs of cleaning up the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

BP shares jumped US$1.97, or 5.3 percent, to US$38.83.

Investors are also preparing for the first reading on second-quarter gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic growth.

The second-quarter report, due out Friday, is expected to show just modest growth after stronger gains earlier in the year. The slowdown is being forecast because of the withdrawal of government stimulusmeasures.

Even with a modest slowdown, there are no signs that the economy is going to fall back into recession, says Jim Meyer, chief investment officer at Tower Bridge Advisors.

"The rolling over of the economy Wall Street thinks it sees just isn't taking shape," Meyer said.

• yesterday [´jestədi] n.&ad.昨天；前不久 (初中英语单词)
• shipping [´ʃipiŋ] n.船运业；船舶(总数) (初中英语单词)
• industrial [in´dʌstriəl] a.工业的，产业的 (初中英语单词)
• commerce [´kɔmə:s] n.商业；社交；交流 (初中英语单词)
• annual [´ænjuəl] a.每年的 n.年刊 (初中英语单词)
• financial [fi´nænʃəl] a.金融的，财政的 (初中英语单词)
• sharply [´ʃɑ:pli] ad.锋利地；剧烈地 (初中英语单词)
• economy [i´kɔnəmi] n.经济；机制；组织 (初中英语单词)
• investment [in´vestmənt] n.投资；(时间等)投入 (初中英语单词)
• definitely [´definitli] ad.明确地；绝对 (初中英语单词)
• volume [´vɔlju:m, ´vɑljəm] n.卷；书籍；体积；容量 (初中英语单词)
• briefly [´bri:fli] ad.简短地；简略地 (初中英语单词)
• release [ri´li:s] vt&n.释放；放松；赦免 (初中英语单词)
• charge [tʃɑ:dʒ] v.收费；冲锋 n.费用 (初中英语单词)
• mexico [´meksikəu] n.墨西哥 (初中英语单词)
• reading [´ri:diŋ] n.(阅)读；朗读；读物 (初中英语单词)
• domestic [də´mestik] a.家庭的；本国的 (初中英语单词)
• measure [´meʒə] n.量度；范围 vt.测量 (初中英语单词)
• modest [´mɔdist] a.谦虚的；朴素的 (初中英语单词)
• unexpected [ʌniks´pektid] a.突然的；意外的 (高中英语单词)
• positive [´pɔzətiv] a.确定的 (高中英语单词)
• concerned [kən´sə:nd] a.有关的；担心的 (高中英语单词)
• seeing [si:iŋ] see的现在分词 n.视觉 (高中英语单词)
• delivery [di´livəri] n.送交；分娩；交货 (高中英语单词)
• consumer [kən´sju:mə] n.消费者；用户 (高中英语单词)
• technical [´teknikəl] a.技术的；专门性的 (高中英语单词)
• moderately [´mɔdəritli] ad.适度；适中；普通 (英语四级单词)
• outlook [´autluk] n.眺望；景色；展望 (英语四级单词)
• midday [´middei] n.中午 (英语四级单词)
• glimmer [´glimə] n.&vi.闪光 (英语四级单词)
• overnight [,əuvə´nait] ad.通宵 a.昨晚的 (英语四级单词)
• network [´netwə:k] n.网状物 vt.联播 (英语四级单词)
• stimulus [´stimjuləs] n.刺激(物)；促进因素 (英语四级单词)
• bridge [bridʒ] n.桥(梁)；鼻梁；桥牌 (英语四级单词)
• earnings [´ə:niŋz] n.收益；报酬；获得 (英语六级单词)
• forecast [´fɔ:kɑ:st] vt.&n.预测；预报 (英语六级单词)
• taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)