Stocks Climb Despite Gloomy Housing Data

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U.S. equity markets posted solid gains on Friday, turning into the green for the week, as traders shook off disappointing housing data.

Today's Markets

As of 10:05 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 55.2 points, or 0.34%, to 16188, the S&P 500 advanced 5.1 points, or 0.28%, to 1845 and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 12.8 points, or 0.3%, to 4280.

Wall Street has mostly moved sideways this week. As of Thursday's close, the Dow was down 0.13% for the week, while the broader S&P 500 was up 0.06%.

Economic data that have been released over the course of the week have been mixed. Economists have pointed to bad weather as having blurred the data, particularly for January.

A report at 10:00 a.m. ET could help shed additional light on the situation. Economists expect the pace of sales of existing, single-family homes to have fallen to an annualized rate of 4.68 million units in January 4.8 million the month prior.

On the corporate front, Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) posted better-than-expected quarterly results after the close of trading on Thursday. Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN) shares plummeted on the back of a week forecast.

Elsewhere, U.S. crude oil futures fell 39 cents, or 0.38%, to $102.92 a barrel. Wholesale New York Harbor gasoline dipped 0.51% to $2.83 a gallon. Gold rose $4.70, or 0.36%, to $1,322 a troy ounce.