Stocks rose on Tuesday as investors weighed sliding U.S. consumer confidence against an upbeat report on U.S. home prices and an encouraging development in the European sovereign-debt crisis.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed at 12,534.67, up 32.01 points or 0.3 per cent. The broader S&P 500 closed at 1319.99, up 6.27 points or 0.5 per cent. In Canada, the S&P/TSX composite index closed at 11,334.42, up 4.03 points or 0 per cent.
The situation in Europe was mixed, with rising Spanish and Italian bond yields again pointing to unsustainable borrowing costs as European leaders meet this week to discuss the ongoing crisis. The yield on Spain's 10-year government bond rose to 6.8 per cent, up about 24 basis points. The yield on Italy's 10-year bond rose to 6.15 per cent, up 17 basis points. (There are 100 basis points in a percentage point.)
However, there was at least one encouraging development: A paper from European Union leaders discussed ways to better integrate the economic union, including giving a supervisor the ability to oversee banks and allowing for the pre-approval of national budgets.
Among European equity indexes, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 fell 0.1 per cent, Germany's DAX index rose 0.1 per cent and Spain's benchmark index fell 1.5 per cent.
Within the United States, the news was also mixed. The Conference Board's consumer confidence index for June fell for the fourth straight month. It slipped to 62 from 64.4 last month, marking a five-month low.
However, the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index for April showed a slight gain of 0.7 per cent from the previous month, after adjusting for seasonal variations. The year-over-year decline of 1.9 per cent was the shallowest decline in more than a year, and seems to suggest some stabilizing within the sector with the potential for overall price increases in 2012.
The report had a big impact on U.S. homebuilding stocks. PulteGroup Inc. and Toll Brothers Inc. rose 5.3per cent each.
Among commodity prices gold slipped to $1,574.90 (U.S.) an ounce, down $13.50. Crude oil rose to $79.36 a barrel, up 15 cents. Among producers, Barrick Gold Corp. fell 4 per cent and Suncor Energy Inc. rose less than 0.1 per cent.
David Berman