Recent earnings and forecasts from builders like KB Home (NYSE: KBH), D.R. Horton Inc. (NYSE: DHI), Toll Brothers Inc. (NYSE: TOL), Lennar Corp. (NYSE: LEN), and PulteGroup Inc. (NYSE: PHM) have been mixed, but the trend has been slightly positive for the first time in many quarters.

In the 20-city Case-Shiller index, the one-year decline in Atlanta was worst, at -11.7%, followed by Las Vegas at -8.5% and Minneapolis at -8.4%. The two cities posting one year price gains in October were Detroit, up 2.5%, and Washington, D.C., up 1.3%.

Only one city, Phoenix, posted a month-over-month gain in October, and that gain was a mere 0.3%. The largest decline month-over-month came in Atlanta, at -5%, with Detroit falling -3.3% in the month.

The Case-Shiller indices indicate a couple of things. First, the impact of foreclosed properties still weighs on home prices. And as more foreclosed properties hit the market now that lenders are ending their self-imposed moratorium on foreclosures, more pressure is expected on home prices.

Second, the recent good news on new orders and inventory levels from home builders could be more transient than many had hoped. Even the expected improvements in homebuilding were slight, and remained near recent lows.

Home prices have returned to their level in mid-2003, and the 20-city recovery from its most recent low in March 2011 is up 1.9%. That’s barely better than nothing.

Paul Ausick

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA down more than 162 points to 12,021.77 (-1.33%), the NASDAQ fell more than 34 points (-1.31%) to 2,612.26, and the S&P 500 fell nearly -1.5% or more than 18 points to 1,236.48.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) raised to overweight with an $82 target price at Morgan Stanley. Other ratings actions today include AutoZone Inc. (NYSE: AZO) maintained as ‘buy’ with a $381 target price at Argus, E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. (NYSE: DD) cut to ‘neutral’ at Citigroup; El Paso Pipeline Partners L.P. (NYSE: ELB) started as ‘overweight’ at JPMorgan; Lennar Corp. (NYSE: LEN) and Toll Brothers, Inc. (NYSE: TOL) cut to ‘hold’ at KeyBanc.

Here are today’s post-earnings news reactions with prices during the last half-hour of trading: Barnwell Industries Inc. (AMEX: BRN) is down about -2.8% at $3.09. There were no other earnings report of note today.

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

Diamond Foods Inc. (NASDAQ: DMND) is down more than -22% at $31.45. The snack food company faces more questions about its accounting. See our coverage for more details.

Vulcan Materials Co. (NYSE: VMC) is up more than 15% at $38.84. The construction materials company received an unsolicited takeover bid from competitor Martin Marietta Materials Inc. (NYSE: MLM).

Oxigene, Inc. (NASDAQ: OXGN) is up nearly 20% at $1.21. The biopharmaceutical company has signed an agreement with a Danish pharmaceutical firm to provide one of Oxigene’s cancer drugs in Europe.

Helix Biopharma Corp. (AMEX: HBP) is down nearly -13% at $1.36. The cancer drug development company has appointed a special committee and engaged an outside auditing firm to investigate claims of unauthorized “representations and assurances” made by certain shareholders to European shareholders who purchased the company’s shares in a private placement.

Pinnacle Airlines Corp. (NASDAQ: PNCL) is down nearly -16% at 1.17, after posting a new 52-week low of $1.08 earlier today. The regional airlines is initiating a program to cut costs and raise cash, and shares were downgraded today at Dahlman Rose from ‘hold’ to ‘sell’ with a target price of $0.75.

Rosetta Resources Inc. (NASDAQ: ROSE) is down -11% at $45.00. The oil & gas exploration & production company experienced disappointing results from two wells in northern Montana.

National Bank of Greece SA (NYSE: NBG) is down more than -15% at $2.03, after posting a new 52-week low of $2.01 earlier today. The bank is the victim of the lack of enthusiasm that developed over the weekend for the Eurozone agreement.

Stay tuned for Tuesday. Here are some noteworthy events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

• 7:30 a.m. – NFIB small business optimism index
• 8:30 a.m. – Retail sales
• 10:00 a.m. – Business inventories
• 2:15 p.m. – Federal Reserve open market committee meeting announcement.

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Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) Raised to Outperform at BMO Capital Markets.
AutoZone Inc. (NYSE: AZO) Maintained as Buy with a price target of $381 by Argus.
Boardwalk Pipeline Partners, LP (NYSE: BWP) Started as Neutral at JPMorgan.
Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) Raised to Overweight with $82 price target at Morgan Stanley.
Bally Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: BYI) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
El Paso Pipeline Partners, L.P. (NYSE: EPB) Started as Overweight at JPMorgan.
E I DuPont de Nemours & Co. (NYSE: DD), or DuPont, Cut to Neutral at Citigroup; Lowered estimates for DuPont at Credit Suisse.
Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (NYSE: EW) Raised to Buy with $75 target at Canaccord Genuity.
Kindred Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE: KND) is already a strong buy but was named as the value stock of the day by Zacks Investment Research.
Lennar Corporation (NYSE: LEN) Cut to Hold at KeyBanc.
Linear Technology (NASDAQ: LLTC) Reiterated Underperform and named Bear of the Day by Zacks Investment Research.
MetroPCS Communications, Inc. (NYSE: PCS) Started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Pall Corporation (NYSE: PLL) on Focus List and raised price target to $68 at Credit Suisse.
PNM Resources, Inc. (NYSE: PNM) Cut to Market Perform at Wells Fargo.
PS Business Parks (NYSE: PSB) reiterated Outperform and named as Bull of the Day at Zacks.
SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) Reiterated Buy with $84 price target objective by Argus.
Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL) Cut to Hold at KeyBanc.

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JON C. OGG

Among the six homebuilders, only NVR had a significant jump in its target price since mid-October. The median target price for NVR is now $765, up from $728, and the stock price as of about noon today is $682.57, for an upside potential of 12.1%. That’s not a grand number, but it’s the best in the sector. Target prices for PulteGroup, D.R. Horton, Hovnanian, and Beazer did not change and the target price for Toll Brothers rose just $0.15, from $21.50 to $21.65. Not a big display of confidence in the sector.

Home Depot’s median target price rose from $40.00 to $42.00, and the stock’s current price of $40.51 implies a potential gain of 3.7%. Lowe’s median target price rose from $23.00 to $26.00, and at the current price of $25.13 the implied gain is 3.5%. Even though now is not a particularly good season for home improvement projects, either one or both of these stores could easily push through the new targets.

While the target prices did not change for five of the homebuilders, all but NVR saw share price gains of more than 30% in the last six weeks, with PulteGroup shares gaining 51%. Home Depot and Lowe’s shares are up 16% and 19%, respectively, in the same period. These share price rises for homebuilders indicate more investor interest in these stocks, analysts’ lack of enthusiasm indicates that caution remains the best policy.

None of these builders pays a dividend, with the exception of Beazer which offers investors a dividend yield of 1.2%. Home Depot’s dividend yield is 2.9%, and Lowe’s offers a dividend yield of 2.3%.

For investors who believe they have to participate in this sector, Home Depot remains the best choice, with Lowe’s the best alternative. Building — and selling — new houses is still a risky business.

Paul Ausick

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up more than 52 points to 12,150.13 (0.43%), the NASDAQ fell more than 6 points (-0.23%) to 2,649.56, and the S&P 500 rose 0.11% or nearly 5 points to 1,258.47.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO) started as ‘buy’ at Deutsche Bank. Other ratings action include Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) reiterated as ‘buy’ with a $44 price target at Argus; Tesoro Corp. (NYSE: TSO) cut from ‘outperform’ to ‘neutral’ with a $34 price target at Credit Suisse; LinkedIn Corp. (NASDAQ: LNKD) raised to ‘overweight’ at JPMorgan; and General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) raised to ‘outperform’ by Berstein.

Here are today’s post-earnings news reactions with prices during the last half-hour of trading: Chesapeake Granite Wash Trust (NYSE: CHKR) is up 0.7% at $19.94; Blyth, Inc. (NYSE: BTH) is down -0.05% at $66.33; Pep Boys-Manny, Joe, and Jack (NYSE: PBY) is down -5.5% at $11.21; Uranium Energy Corp. (AMEX: UEC) is up 0.66% at $3.06; AutoZone Inc. (NYSE: AZO) is down -0.12% at $338.56; Darden Restaurants Inc. (NYSE: DRI) is down -12% at $41.95; Toll Brothers Inc. (NYSE: TOL) is up nearly 3% at $21.37; and Liquidity Services Inc. (NASDAQ: LQDT) is up nearly 5.5% at $36.74, after posting a new 52-week high of $37.05 earlier in the day. Earnings releases coming after markets close today include Diamond Foods Inc. (NASDAQ: DMND); SAIC Inc. (NYSE: SAI); and Vera Bradley Inc. (NYSE: VRA).

Several other standouts from today are as follows…

Frontline Ltd. (NYSE: FRO) is up more than 19%, to $4.23. The oil tanker company has been suffering from low day rates and lack of cargoes, but today’s injection of $500 million from a Norwegian bank controlled by the company’s major shareholder, John Fredriksen, has pumped up interest in the stock.

Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTIC) is up 14%, at $1.31. The drug-maker received notice from the FDA that its new drug application for a treatment for non-Hodgkins lymphoma is complete.

Comstock Resources Inc. (NYSE: CRK) is up nearly 15%, at $19.39. The oil & gas E&P company has acquired new acreage in the Delaware Basin of west Texas and reported that it had drilled five new producing wells in its Eagle Ford shale acreage.

Vonage Holdings Corp. (NYSE: VG) is down nearly -5%, at $2.52. The VoIP provider did not report any significant news, but the stock has been quite volatile over the past month.

Hecla Mining Co. (NYSE: HL) is up more than 9%, at $6.57. The miner benefited from today’s investors’ interest in gold mining stocks.

Stay tuned for Wednesday. We have noted Federal Reserve Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin moderating a panel on grass-roots participation at Baltimore branch of Richmond Fed. Here are other noteworthy events scheduled for Tuesday (all times Eastern):

• 7:00 a.m. – Mortgage Bankers Association purchase applications
• 10:30 a.m. – EIA weekly petroleum status report
• 3:00 p.m. – Report on outstanding consumer credit

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Paul Ausick

D.R. Horton, Inc. (NYSE: DHI) reported fourth fiscal quarter EPS of $0.11 on revenue of $1.1 billion this morning, short of the consensus EPS estimate of $0.14, but in-line with the revenue estimate. For the company’s full fiscal year, EPS came in at $0.23 on revenue of $3.5 billion. For 2010, Horton posted EPS of $0.77 on revenue of $4.3 billion. That hardly looks like the start of a recovery. Other homebuilders like PulteGroup, Inc. (NYSE: PHM), Lennar Corp. (NYSE: LEN), Toll Brothers Inc. (NYSE: TOL), and KB Home (NYSE: KBH) have posted, at best mixed results. Even home improvement giants like Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE: HD) and Lowe’s Companies (NYSE: LOW) have been mixed.

PulteGroup posted an EPS loss of -$0.34 in its quarter ended in September, but is expected to post EPS of $0.06 for the December quarter. Lennar beat EPS expectations by a penny in its August quarter and Toll Brothers crushed expectations by posting EPS of $0.25. For their current quarters, Lennar is expected to report EPS of $0.17 and Toll Brothers is looking for EPS of $0.05. KB Home put up a better-than-expected EPS loss of -$0.13 in its August quarter and is expected to post EPS of $0.02 for its November quarter.

Home Depot reported EPS for its July quarter of $0.86, beating estimates, and is expected to report EPS of $0.58 next Tuesday. Lowe’s also beat estimates in its July quarter and is expected to post EPS of $0.33 when it reports earnings next Monday. Home remodeling got a boost this year, up 29% year-over-year in August, but that number should begin to decline as the remodeling season is now behind us. Lowe’s announced last month that it would close 20 stores and fire about 1,950 employees, costing the company about $0.17-$0.20 in EPS.

In its quarterly report, Horton noted that its sales backlog had grown nearly 18%, from 4,128 new homes in September 2010 to 4,854 this past September. However, the company also said that its cancellation rate for the quarter was 29%. That backlog can hardly be considered safe, especially given that a surge of foreclosed properties for sale is expected to hit the market sometime in the next few months.

In the earnings release, Horton’s chairman said that the company is positioned “for a stronger start to fiscal 2012.” That’s good, but how the company finishes is more important. There are so many headwinds to new homebuilding that it is hard to be too confident that 2012 will be much better than 2011.

Paul Ausick

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up more than 85 points to 12,068.39 (0.71%), the NASDAQ rose more than 9 points (0.34%) to 2,695.25, and the S&P 500 rose 0.63% or nearly 8 points to 1,261.12.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Kellogg Co. (NYSE: K) cut to ‘market perform’ at William Blair. Other changes included Alcatel-Lucent SA cut to ‘sell’ at Citigroup; Toll Brothers, Inc. (NYSE: TOL) raised to ‘buy’ at Citigroup; VeriFone Systems Inc. (NYSE: PAY) started at ‘buy’ at Citigroupl; YRC Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ: YRCW) maintained at ‘underperform’ with a price target of $0.05 at Credit Suisse; and Groupon Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) started at ‘buy’ at Benchmark.

Here are today’s big post-earnings news reactions with prices during the last half-hour of trading: Tesco Corp. (NASDAQ: TESO) is down about -18%, at $13.34; BroadSoft, Inc. (NASDAQ: BSFT) is down less than -0.5%%, at $36.28; Cameco Corp. (NYSE: CCJ) is down nearly -7%, at $20.00; Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp. (NYSE: CDE) is up nearly 8%, at $29.42; Quicksilver Resources Inc. (NYSE: KWK) is down more than -9%, at $7.62; and Nordic American Tankers Ltd. (NYSE: NAT) is down nearly -4%, at $13.64.

Several other standouts from today are as follows…

Force Protection, Inc. (NASDAQ: FRPT) is up more than 30%, at $5.50. The armored truck maker is being acquired by General Dynamics Corp. (NYSE: GD for $5.52/share in a deal worth $360 million.

American Dental Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADPI) is up nearly 79%, to $18.57. The company is being acquired by a private equity firm for $317 million, or $19/share, an 83% premium to Friday’s closing price.

Tekelec (NASDAQ: TKLC) is up more than 13%, at $11.20. The telecom equipment maker is being acquired by a private equity firm for about $760 million.

OmniVision Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: OVTI) is down nearly -18%, at $14.23. The company revised its outlook to include a sharp drop in fourth-quarter revenues. Shares are down about -50% since the beginning of the calendar year.

Diamond Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ: DMND) is down about -15.5%, at $39.21, after posting a new 52-week low of $38.45 earlier in the day. The company’s stock continues to get beaten up due to a delay in its acquisition of the Pringles business from Proctor & Gamble (NYSE: PG) and an investigation into payments to walnut growers.

Stay tuned for Tuesday. Philadelphia Federal Reserve president Charles Plosser is giving a speech in the morning and Minneapolis Federal Reserve president Narayana Kocherlakota gives a speech in the afternoon. We have noted the following events (all times Eastern):

• 7:45 a.m. – International Council of Shopping Centers-Goldman Sachs same-store sales
• 8:55 a.m. – Redbook weekly report on retail sales
• 1:00 p.m. – US Treasury 3-year note auction

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Paul Ausick

Alcatel-Lucent SA (NYSE: ALU) Cut to Sell at Citigroup; Cut estimates and target at Argus.
American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) named as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
Delek US Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: DK) named value stock of the day at Zacks.
Groupon, Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) Started as Buy at Benchmark.
The Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) Raised to Outperform at RBC.
ING Groep NV (NYSE: ING) Cut to Hold at Soc-Gen.
Kellogg Co. (NYSE: K) Cut to Market Perform at William Blair.
Medivation, Inc. (NASDAQ: MDVN) Raised to Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks.
Pier 1 Imports, Inc. (NYSE: PIR) Started as Outperform at Wells Fargo.
Quest Diagnostics Inc. (NYSE: DGX) Raised to Outperform at RBC.
Toll Brothers Inc. (NYSE: TOL) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
Veolia Environnement S.A. (NYSE: VE) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
VeriFone Systems, Inc (NYSE: PAY) Started as Buy at Citigroup.
Western Gas Partners. L.P. (NYSE: WES) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
YRC Worldwide. Inc. (NASDAQ: YRCW) Maintained Underperform and target cut to $0.05 at Credit Suisse; maintained neutral with losing share at Zacks.

See the top analyst upgrades and downgrades of the prior week here. 

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JON C. OGG

Worse, there is not much expectation that the market will turn around, at least until 2013. More foreclosed homes coming on the market will continue to depress prices, and until inventories of unsold homes are cleared, there simply cannot be a significant recovery. The homebuilders we are looking at include NVR (NYSE: NVR), Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL), PulteGroup (NYSE: PHM), Hovnanian Enterprises (NYSE: HOV), D.R. Horton (NYSE: DHI) and Beazer Homes USA (NYSE: BZH).

Home improvement stores have also had to struggle over the past several years. Shares of Home Depot (NYSE: HD) and Lowe’s Companies (NYSE: LOW) are both lower today than they were five years ago.

Share prices were pegged at about noon today, and all data comes from Yahoo! Finance.

NVR has a median target price of $728.00 from four brokers. Shares are trading today at $620.99, for an implied gain of $107.01, or 14.7%. NVR’s forward P/E is 17.6 and the company does not pay a dividend. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $554.71 to $804.31, and at today’s price that is about 12% above its 52-week low and 23% below the 52-week high. NVR’s share price has risen about 12% since October 2006, and of all the homebuilders, it is the only one that can point to a gain over that period. The company’s consensus EPS estimate for 2011 has dropped from $28.02 to $26.45. There might be an opportunity here, but it is a pretty slim one.

Toll Brothers has a median target price of $21.50 from 14 brokers. Shares are trading today at $15.29, for an implied gain of $6.21, or 28.9%. Its forward P/E is 49.35 and the company does not pay a dividend. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $13.16 to $22.42, and at today’s price that is about 16% above its 52-week low and 32% below the 52-week high. Toll Brothers is expected to post EPS of $0.20 for its 2011 fiscal year ending this month — and that is up from an earlier EPS estimate of just $0.02. The company’s position at the luxury end of the market has been something of a prop to the share price, but the U.S. economy is not minting many new millionaires right now.

PulteGroup has a median target price of $6.50 from 15 brokers. Shares are trading today at $4.14, for an implied gain of $2.36, or 36.3%. PulteGroup’s forward P/E is 32 and the company does not pay a dividend. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $3.29 to $8.69, and at today’s price that is about 26% above its 52-week low and 52% below the 52-week high. PulteGroup was one of the 10 worst performing stocks in the recently completed quarter, losing 45% of its value. There is nothing about the homebuilding industry or PulteGroup’s recent performance that justifies the forward P/E ratio of 32. Hope is not a strategy.

Hovnanian Enterprises has a median target price of $1.38 from eight brokers. Shares are trading today at $1.20, for an implied gain of $0.18, or 13%. Hovnanian’s forward P/E is negative and the company does not pay a dividend. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $0.89 to $5.00, and at today’s price that is about 35% above its 52-week low and 76% below the 52-week high. Hovnanian is asking debt holders to exchange old notes for new ones carrying a lower interest rate and a longer term. The offer is scheduled to end next week. The company’s corporate debt rating is CC, just two notches above default. Debt holders are unlikely to ride to the company’s rescue.

D.R. Horton has a median target price of $13.00 from 14 brokers. Shares are trading today at $9.62, for an implied gain of $3.38, or 26%. Horton’s forward P/E is 19.3 and the company pays a dividend yield of 1.5%. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $8.03 to $13.50, and at today’s price that is about 59% above its 52-week low and 29% below the 52-week high. Horton is expected to post EPS for the quarter just ended of $0.14, and full-year EPS of $0.20 for the year ended in September. The consensus estimate for 2012 full-year EPS is $0.50. If the market is getting weaker, as many believe, the company has exactly no chance of meeting that 2012 number.

Beazer Homes USA has a median target price of $3.00 from seven brokers. Shares are trading today at $1.81, for an implied gain of $1.19, or 39.7%. Its forward P/E is negative and the company does not pay a dividend. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $1.35 to $6.23, and at today’s price that is about 12% above its 52-week low and 81% below the 52-week high. Beazer’s biggest trouble is that it is a builder of entry-level homes, the sector that is hardest hit by the number of foreclosed properties coming on the market. One thing that could help Beazer a little is that home owners have begun taking their houses off the market because they are unwilling to sell for the current low prices. Inventory is still high, but it was lower in September than in August.

Home Depot has a median target price of $40.00 from 22 brokers. Shares are trading today at $34.97, for an implied gain of $5.03, or 12.6%. Home Depot’s forward P/E is 13.14 and the company pays a dividend yield of 2.9%. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $28.13 to $39.38, and at today’s price that is about 24% above its 52-week low and 11% below the 52-week high. Research firm BuildFax reports thats home remodeling projects increased by 29% in August compared with August 2010. The firm attributes the increase to refinancing of existing homes at current low interest rates. With the peak remodeling season behind us for another year, this growth could begin to slow down.

Lowe’s Companies has a median target price of $23.00 from 20 brokers. Shares are trading today at $21.09, for an implied gain of $1.91, or 8.3%. Its forward P/E is 11.93 and the company pays a dividend yield of 2.7%. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $18.07 to $27.45, and at today’s price that is about 17% above its 52-week low and 23% below the 52-week high. Lowe’s announced this morning that it was closing another 20 stores across the U.S. and expects to take a charge of $0.17 to $0.20 against second-quarter EPS. About 1,950 employees will lose their jobs. Lowe’s performance has been weaker than Home Depot’s for a couple of years now, and this year the share price is about flat, compared with Home Depot’s share price gain of 15%.

Paul Ausick

According to today’s report, the seasonally adjusted annual rate of sales of new single-family homes in August is -2.3% lower than in July, but 6.1% higher than August 2010.  The number of new homes sold in August 2011 was 295,000 new homes, compared with 278,000 in August 2010. That’s okay, except August 2010 monthly sales were the lowest on record. Pretty weak.

Last week both KB Home (NYSE: KBH) and Lennar Corp. (NYSE: LEN) reported weak earnings. KB did note a jump of 40% in new orders, once again a hopeful sign until compared with the same period last year which couldn’t have been much worse. Other homebuilders PulteGroup, Inc. (NYSE: PHM), D.R. Horton, Inc. (NYSE: DHI), Toll Brothers Inc. (NYSE: TOL), NVR Corp. (NYSE: NVR), and Beazer Homes USA Inc. (NYSE: BZH) have all struggled during the past twelve months, with only NVR showing a share price drop of less than -10%. This is not an industry on the mend.

The Commerce Department also estimates that the US housing inventory increased slightly in August to a 6.6 month supply at the current sales rate. Of that, the Department estimates that 60,000 new homes are completed and ready for sale and another 77,000 are under construction. Another 27,000 are permitted but construction has not yet begun. The total inventory at the end of July was 163,000 houses with 26,000 sold in August. At the end of August, 164,000 new houses were for sale. That’s not an improvement.

The best thing to be said for new home sales is that they are not getting worse even though the absolute numbers are very low. If this data indicates a recovery or any sign of better days ahead for homebuilders, then one is looking at the numbers through rose-colored lenses.

Shares of KB Hoe are down more than -6% in the early afternoon, at $5.55, in a 52-week range of $5.09-$16.11.  Lennar shares are down about -1.5%, at $13.20, in a 52-week range of $12.39-$21.54. Pulte shares are down nearly -2%, at $3.97 in a 52-week range of $3.40-$8.99. The other builders are also trading lower, and the SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (NYSE: XHB) is up a fraction at $13.45, in a 52-week range of $13.02-$19.21.

Paul Ausick