Wall Street continued to rebound Tuesday, following recent losses, after better-than-expected durable goods orders, housing data and consumer confidence.
Durable goods orders beat economists' expectations and increased 3.6 percent in May as demand for goods ranging from aircraft to machinery rose, the Commerce Department said. Economists polled by Reuters had expected orders to rise 3.0 percent last month. Orders excluding transportation increased 0.7 percent after advancing 1.7 percent in April. Non-defense capital goods orders, excluding aircraft, increased 1.1 percent.
Global markets also edged up after comments from some policymakers from the Fed who downplayed the potential impact of scaling back on its QE program.
The Shanghai Composite halted its two-day sell-off early on Tuesday after plunging earlier in the session, but still remained 20 percent from a ten-month high hit in February.
Sales of new single-family homes increased 2.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 476,000 units, which was the highest level since July 2008, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday.
Other data showed single-family home prices jumped in April, hitting their biggest annual gain in seven years. The S&P/Case Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas gained 1.7 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis, topping forecasts for 1.2 percent.
Separate data showed consumer confidence in June rose to a more than five-year high as the index rose to 81.4 from 74.3 in May, the Conference Board said Tuesday.
As of 1:10pm Eastern, the Dow Jones industrial average .DJI jumped 91.31 points, or 0.62 percent, to 14,750.87. The Standard and Poor’s 500 .SPX Index rose 12.81 points, or 0.81 percent, to 1,585.96.
