Tuesday’s Mid-Day Movers: 3 Stories Driving Markets

The U.S. equity markets overcame early losses and are showing resilience in the face of some mixed economic signals. At the end of the day, higher-than-expected earnings are pulling the markets to five-year highs.

At: 1:00 p.m.: DJIA: +0.46%, S&P 500: +0.36%, NASDAQ: -0.07%.

Here are three stories moving markets on Tuesday:

1) Home prices rose 5.5 percent through November for the S&P/Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Index, according to data released today. Prices climbed 4.5 percent for the 10-City Composite Index.

“The November monthly figures were stronger than October, with 10 cities seeing rising prices versus seven the month before,” commented David Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee. “Winter is usually a weak period for housing which explains why we now see about half the cities with falling month-to-month prices compare to 20 out of 20 seeing rising prices last summer. The better annual price changes also point to seasonal weakness rather than a reversal in the housing market.”