Upbeat Housing Data Lifts Markets To Higher Close

August 16, 2012 at 18:49 PM EDT

Upbeat housing data lifted the markets to a higher close with the Dow soaring 85 points to 13,250. Nasdaq climbed 31 points to 3062.
On the upside
A Seeking Alpha Contributor listed GT Advanced Technologies (Nasdaq: GTAT) as one of four undervalued technology stocks that is profitable.
A strong gain in new home construction permits lifted shares of Beazer Homes (NYSE: BZH) and PulteGroup (NYSE: PHM).
The Benchmark Company analyst Gary Mobley wrote that IBM's (NYSE: IBM) acquisition of Texas Memory Systems may prompt Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) to purchase Fusion-IO (NYSE: FIO).
On the downside
Investors locked in profits on Sprint (NYSE: S) whose stock price climbed yesterday after announcing a $100 American Express gift card promotion. Molycorp (NYSE: MCP) plans to sell up to $345 million in convertible senior notes and up to $172 million worth of common shares.
The Food and Drug Administration recommended that patients with St. Jude Medical's (NYSE: STJ) heart defibrillators with Riata leads be X-rayed for abnormalities.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of nearly 5 to 2 on both the NYSE and on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks climbed 8 points to 813.