Upbeat housing data sends markets soaring

Upbeat housing data along with rising crude oil prices sent the markets soaring to a sharply higher close with the Dow rocketing 213 points to 17,706. Nasdaq surged 95 points to 4,861.

On the upside

Bargain hunters lifted shares of Everi Holdings (NYSE: EVRI).

Rising crude oil prices lifted shares of Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK).

Cheetah Mobile (NYSE: CMCM) and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) shared a video case study of their successful partnership using AdMob's mobile native ad offering.

On the downside

Falling gold price weighed down shares of Alamos Gold (NYSE: AGI), Harmony Gold (NYSE: HMY) and Kinross Gold (NYSE: KGC).

Shares of Endeavour Silver (NYSE: EXK) dropped as silver prices retreated.

MoffettNathanson downgraded Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) from a Neutral rating to a Sell rating.

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 7 to 2 on both the NYSE and on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 surged 28 points to 2,076. Bitcoin rose $2 to $445.