Friday, March 29, 2013

Dow Futures Rise as Durable Transports, Home Refis Surge

Dow Industrials futures are up 91 points at 10,116, boosted by a duo of positive economic stats and also some positive earnings results.

April durable goods orders rose 2.9% to $193.9 billion, the U.S. Department of Commerce reported, better than the 1.5% expected, while the Mortgage Bankers Association said that mortgage applications volume rose last week by a seasonally-adjusted 11.3% from the prior week. Refis, the Association said, rose 17% last week, the highest refi level since October of last year.

Durable goods were mostly boosted by a surge in transportation orders, the Department said, after two months of declines. Excluding the transport orders, durable goods orders in April were down 1%, which is less than the 0.7% rise that economists were expecting, according to a Briefing.com estimate.

Also helping things this morning, European sovereign debt premia are narrowing, with Greece’s credit default swaps falling to 678 from 742 yesterday. Europe’s banks also saw an easing of credit risk, with Deutsche Bank’s (DB) CDS spread going to 173 from 179 and Credit Suisse’s (CS) going to 142 from 148.

European stocks rebounded from yesterday’s huge declines, with the FTSE 100 rising 119 points, or roughly 2.4% to 5,059.

Lastly, some earnings this morning are helping, including a narrower loss from home builder Toll Brothers (TOL), currently boosting that company’s shares by 69 cents, or 4%, to $21.30.

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