The stock market was mixed today as investors balanced encouraging news about the housing market with gloomy news about the manufacturing sector.
U.S. housing starts bounced back strongly in May, rising 17.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 532,000 after having plunged 12.9 percent in April to a post-World War II low, the U.S. Commerce Department said today.
The increase was led by a 62-percent gain in new construction of multifamily dwellings, the government estimated. Starts of single-family homes rose 7.5 percent to a 401,000 rate, the highest since November.
Meanwhile, the nation's industrial output tumbled 1.1 percent in May, with significant drops in the production of motor vehicles, mining and high-technology products, the Federal Reserve reported today.
The nation's industrial output is down 13.4 percent in the past year, the largest year-over-year decline since 1946, and has fallen in 16 of the past 17 months since the recession began in December 2007.
Locally, most of the stocks in the BizTimes Stock Index rose this morning, led by Badger Meter Inc. (up $1.75 to $41.10) and A.O. Smith Corp. (up $1.19 to $31.19). The largest local decliners this morning were Kohl's Corp. (down 59 cents to $44.90) and Actuant Corp. (down 56 cents to $13.24).
Housing market numbers lift stocks
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