Stocks held onto yesterday's gains thanks again to better than expected economic data regarding home sales. This time pending home sales were up, over 5% from last month. This was a big surprise as most economists were reportedly expecting this index to be lower. Also, The Department of Labor announced that new jobless claims were down last week, and so there were fewer people filing for unemployment benefits.
Among market activity keeping the indexes up was a buyout of Burger King Corporation. The hamburger chain agreed to be acquired by private equity firm 3G Capital. Forest Labs was also up sharply after Reuters reported the FDA said the company's antibiotic appeared effective in clinical trials for treating skin infections and pneumonia.
Orex Pharmaceuticals shot up today after the company reportedly sold its North American marketing rights for a weight loss drug to a Japanese pharmaceutical company.
Retailers also did well today after several of them reported better than expected same store sales for the month.
All of the major indexes - the Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 closed in positive territory, but by less than 1%.
For MarketNewsVideo.com, I'm Kristin Bianco.
