CLOSING BELL

Dow	10466.4	+1.51	(+0.01%)
Nasdaq	2269.64	+16.97	(+0.75%)
SP 500	1120.59	+2.57	(+0.23%)
10-yr Note	+00/32	3.75%
NYSE	Adv 2161	Dec 847	Vol 786 mln
Nasdaq	Adv 1835	Dec 855	Vol 1.59 bln

A terrible New Home Sales numbers caused stocks to decline in the early morning, but a weaker dollar allowed stocks to rebound and squeak out a small gain for the day.  After hitting three month high yesterday the dollar lost 0.5% against competing foreign currencies.   

Personal Income and Spending rose for November but fell short of what economist had hoped for.  The report was ignored by the market and the market rose in early trading despite the report.

News that New Home Sales were off 11.3% from October sent stocks lower in a hurry.   New Home Sales now stand at an annual rate of 355,000 units, which was well below the consensus estimate of 438,000.  This level has not been seen since February 2009.  Additional bad news was that new home sales in October were revised down to an annual rate of 400,000 units from a previously reported rate of 430,000 units.

The Basic Material sector (+1.75%) and the Energy sector (+1.08%) were the two big winners in today’s session.

Cintas Corp (CTAS) 26.35 -3.33 -11.22% was a big looser today after reporting earnings that disappointed the Street.

Oil was higher today after reporting a larger than expected drawdown in inventories.  Oil ended the day at 79.59  +2.9%.