Home Construction Climbs, Markets Soar

Single family home construction climbed in June by the largest amount in two years to lift the markets to a sharply higher open with the Dow soaring 130 points to 12,515. Nasdaq surged 47 points to 2812.

On the upside

Harley-Davidson (NYSE: HOG) reported sharply higher second quarter earnings that more than doubled to surpass analyst expectations as domestic sales rose for the first time in nearly five years.

Shares of MGM Resorts (NYSE: MGM) climbed after Macau reported higher gaming revenue for the first half of July and Sterne, Agee & Leach analyst David Bain said that gambling revenue may soar as much as 40% for the entire month.

InterDigital (Nasdaq: IDCC) retained the services of Evercore Partners and Barclays Capital to explore strategic alternative to increase shareholder value including the possible sale of the company.

On the downside

Star Bulk (Nasdaq: SBLK) priced its public offering of 16.7 million common shares at the discounted price of $1.80 per share.

Lincare Holdings (Nasdaq: LNCR) blamed higher expenses for a drop in second quarter earnings.

Avery Dennison (NYSE: AVY) warned of lower second quarter revenue and forecast second quarter earnings below expectations prompting a downgrade.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 4 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 5 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks climbed 13 points to 829.