After bad news from Europe and the housing market, stocks were down at midday.
Although home prices in November were down 4.3% from a year earlier, they remained unchanged from October, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency's home price index. The housing market remains a weakness in the economy, with only 4.9 million homes sold in 2010. This is a 4.8% decrease from 2009.
In a separate report, prices for single-family homes in 20 major cities decreased by 1.0% in November, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index. This nonseasonally adjusted number is the fourth consecutive monthly decline, and the second straight month where annua l growth rates decelerated. San Diego was the only city to record a monthly increase.
Meanwhile, U.S. consumer confidence unexpectedly jumped to 60.6 in January, said the Conference Board, indicating favorable market conditions and job generation in the coming months. This was up from December's 53.3, and is the highest confidence level since May. Further, consumers' assessment of the present economic conditions increased to 31, the highest level in more than a year.
http://news.morningstar.com/articlenet/article.aspx?id=367402
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