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Inversting.com — U.S. stock markets started the week in positive mode, as participants took encouragement from data showing the strength of the housing market in July and downplayed fresh signs elsewhere of the economic recovery flattening out.
By 9:35 AM ET (1335 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 36 points, or 0.1%, at 27,967, while the S&P 500 was up 0.3% and the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.6%.
Earlier, the National Association of Home Builders said its housing market index matched its all-time high of 78 in July, rising much more sharply than expected. That overshadowed a significant weakening in the Empire State Manufacturing index, which fell to a level of 3.7 from 17.2 in July. New orders slumped particularly alarmingly but the employment component of the index held up.
The news from the NAHB supported names such as Home Depot (NYSE:HD) stock, which rose 1.9% to an all-time high, and home-builder Lennar (NYSE:LEN), which also hit an all-time high with a gain of 1.2%.
Elsewhere, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock rose another 4.4%, adding another $13 to its market capitalization, on the back of a price target upgrade from Wedbush Securities, which it put down to signs of accelerating sales growth in China. Figures from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers suggest that Tesla sold over 11,000 cars in China in July, grabbing a bigger share of a market that is actually expected to shrink this year due to the phase out of subsidies. Almost all of the cars sold were the Model 3, which generates the lowest profit margin of all the company’s models.
The market seemed largely untroubled by the increasing amount of noise generated by political arguments, which centered at the weekend around the role of the U.S. Postal Service.
