U.S. stocks and exchange traded funds (ETFs) are in positive territory this morning as optimism about the housing market has returned.
The nation’s second-largest home improvement chain, Lowe’s (LOW), posted a 22% decline in first-quarter earnings, but still beat Wall Street’s expectations. The North Carolina-based company reported earnings of $0.32/share as compared to the $0.26/share forecast by analysts. As for the future, Lowe’s is targeting a projected profit of nearly $1.25/share, whereas analysts are projecting $1.11/share, reports Mark Clothier of Bloomberg.
This news helped send the SPDR S&P Homebuilders (XHB) up nearly 4% in intraday trading.
The financial sector was praised with some good news as many analysts upgraded and released positive comments regarding Bank of America (BAC), sending the Financial Select SPDR (XLF) up about 4% in morning trading. BAC is 5.8%.
The auto industry is still seeing more disagreement. With less than two weeks remaining before the June 1 deadline of a government-ordered restructuring plan, General Motors (GM) and the UAW are not in agreement about GM’s decision to close 16 plants and import more vehicles from foreign nations.