24/7 Wall St.

September 24, 2013: U.S. markets opened slightly higher on Tuesday but a weak report on consumer confidence pushed equities down to their daily lows. Stocks recovered though as the earlier release of the Case-Shiller house price index showed that prices are remaining strong but that monthly gains might be moderating. The three major indexes closed mixed, with the Nasdaq Composite ekeing out a small gain.

European markets closed mostly higher today, while Latin American and Asian markets closed lower.

Wednesday’s calendar includes the following data releases and events (all times Eastern):

• 7:00 a.m. – Mortgage Bankers Association purchase applications
• 8:30 a.m. – Durable goods orders
• 10:00 a.m. – New home sales
• 10:30 a.m. – EIA weekly petroleum status report
• 1:00 p.m. – 5-year note auction

Here are the closing bell levels for Tuesday:

• S&P500 1,697.43 (-4.41; -0.26%)
• DJIA 15,334.59 (-66.79; -0.43%)
• NASDAQ 3,768.25 (+2.97; +0.08%)
• 10YR TNOTE 2.656% (+0.40625)
• Gold $1,316.30 (-10.70; -0.8%)
• WTI Crude oil $103.13 (-0.46; -0.4%)
• Euro/Dollar: 1.3475 (-0.0020; -0.14%)

Big Earnings Movers: Red Hat Inc. (NYSE: RHT) is down 11.7% at $46.74. KB Home (NYSE: KBH) is up 4.3% at $17.76. Lennar Corp. (NYSE: LEN) is up 4.4% at $36.05. Carnival Corp. (NYSE: CCL) is down 7.7% at $34.54. CarMax Inc. (NYSE: KMX) is up 3.6% at $51.79.

Stocks on the Move: Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) is up 9.1% at $17.44 on news of a merger. Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) is up 2.7% at $48.46, after posting a new all-time high. Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NASDAQ: CY) is down 15.7% at $9.65 after issuing an earnings warning this morning.

In all, 144 stocks put up new 52-week highs today, while 26 stocks posted new lows.