CLOSING MARK UPS

Markets closed near the highs of the day as traders/investors/markerupperers quickly forgot the lousy housing numbers.

Strongest sectors included metals, oils, internets, Australia, tech, drugs and utilities. Leading lower were airlines, real estate, trannies, homies, brokers and financials.

Key stocks were mainly lower with the exception of NYX and tech such as AAPL GOOG MSFT.

Market internals closed near the flat line after being way red earlier in the trading day. The OEX/NDX/SPX were all near the 3 down to 2 up level with the NDX the greenest.

Volatility indexes all near the flat line after being 15% higher at the market low.

Winning stocks included EBAY DELL JNPR AAPL LINTA PTEN MEDI and CTSH while losers were UAUA CELG FAST MNST EXPD BBBY ALTR MRVL and MICC.

IBD 100 stocks were about 50/50 between green and red with GROW MTOX DXPE HRT LHCG EVEP MFW and SPTN the big winners; big losers included WFR TELN LFL ICE DSW RVSN and BDC.

Nice day on the SPX as the market opened near the high, dropped about 15 points on the housing news, and closed at/near the high as the markerupperrers found a great excuse to drive prices higher. Housing/shmousing, its the end of the month/quarter and the markets are down so a great time for the funds to drive em up. And it probably continues for the rest of the week as this is a perfect setup.