US Stocks Close Higher, Lifted By Citigroup, Housing Data

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By Donna Kardos

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks closed higher Monday as investors were encouraged by earnings from Citigroup and a measure of home-builder confidence that topped expectations.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 80.91 points, or 0.73%, to 11143.69, its highest close since May 3. The Nasdaq Composite added 11.89, or 0.48% to 2480.66, while the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index advanced 8.52, or 0.72, to 1184.71.

The gains were led by the financial sector, which was boosted by a 5.6% jump in Citigroup. The bank's third-quarter earnings topped analysts' estimates while revenue climbed 2%, meeting expectations as the company managed to grow its core businesses broadly in the third quarter.

"There was this general sigh of relief for Citi in that they seem to be getting things on track," said Tim Evnin, partner and equity portfolio manager at Evercore Wealth Management.

Among other bank stocks, Wells Fargo added 5.5%, KeyCorp advanced 3.4%, Fifth Third Bancorp climbed 3.4% and PNC Financial Services gained 3.3%. The four banks are set to report their quarterly results later this week.

Citigroup's report set a positive tone for a busy week of earnings reports. This week, 11 of the 30 Dow Jones Industrial Average components and more than one-fifth of S&P 500 companies are due to report third-quarter results.

Also lifting sentiment, the National Association of Home Builders said its housing-market index rose three points to 16 in October, the first improvement in the index in five months. The index measures builder confidence for sales prospects of new, single-family homes.

The measure's October increase shows "the new-homes market is finally moving past the lull that occurred when the home-buyer tax credits expired and economic growth stalled this summer," NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe said in a statement.

The NAHB report boosted expectations for data on housing starts and building permits due Tuesday.

"Now we're seeing some sort of recovery," said James Dailey, portfolio manager of the Team Asset Strategy Fund. "There was so much future demand pulled forward because of the tax credit and the incentives that whenever that ended there was naturally going to be a significant decline and now we're just bouncing off of that."

Still, Dailey said, "until we start to see unemployment start to get better...it's not anything we see as being all that optimistic."

Other data released Monday showed U.S. industrial production slipped 0.2% in September, reflecting a slowdown in what was a primary driver of growth out of the recession. Capacity utilization also declined.

However, investors seemed to take the weakness of the industrial production and capacity utilization in stride amid increasing expectations for more stimulus measures from the Fed.

"There is this feeling that there's [more stimulus] lurking to help out if things don't work," Evnin said. "For equity investors, it's a little bit tails we win, heads we do, too, because if it's really bad perhaps we get some quantitative easing."

In deal activity, St. Jude Medical agreed to acquire AGA Medical in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $1.08 billion. St. Jude said the acquisition is "highly complementary" to the medical-device maker's heart and vascular business and will allow it to extend its product reach into new areas. The deal values AGA at a 41% premium to Friday's closing price and includes the assumption of about $225 million in AGA's debt. AGA shares surged 41%, while St. Jude rose 1.8%.

Among other stocks in focus, Halliburton fell 4.8%. The oilfield-services company's third-quarter profit doubled as its North American markets continued to rebound, but the earnings missed analysts' expectations.