New home construction rose and sales of existing homes soared to lift the markets to a higher close with the Dow rising 13 points to 13,577. Nasdaq gained 4 points to 3182.
On the upside
Groupon (Nasdaq: GRPN) introduced its Groupon Payments credit card payment service for retailers that offer Groupon daily deals.
Shares of wireless service providers Sprint (NYSE: S), Clearwire (Nasdaq: CLWR), MetroPCS (NYSE: PCS) and Leap Wireless (Nasdaq: LEAP) all climbed after Sprint chief executive Dan Hesse said that the industry will consolidate.
BB&T Capital Markets upgraded Chiquita Brands (NYSE: CQB) to a Buy rating.
On the downside
Citron Research reported that Aetna (NYSE: AET) would stop reimbursing for Questcor Pharmaceuticals' (Nasdaq: QCOR) Acthar gel except for treating infantile spasms.
Primero Mining (NYSE: PPP) announced a secondary offering of approximately 8.4 million common shares held by Goldcorp.
Swift Energy (NYSE: SFY) blamed Hurricane Isaac for lowering its full year production guidance.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of 7 to 5 on the NYSE while decliners edged out advancers by 10 to 9 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks eased a fraction to 856.
Higher Close As Housing Industry Improves
September 19, 2012 at 20:04 PM EDT
