Stocks Gain on Strong Home Sales Data, Weak Dollar

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Stocks finished higher Monday led by material stocks that gained on a weaker dollar and a better-than-expected existing-home sales report.

• Dow Jones Industrial Average| ^DJI
• Texas Instruments Inc.| TXN
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• Citigroup Inc.| C

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 32 points, or 0.3%, to 11,164. The bluechip index rose as high as 11,247 earlier in the morning before paring gains in the afternoon session. The S&P 500 gained 2 points, or 0.2%, to 1185 and the Nasdaq was ahead by 11 points, or 0.5%, to 2490. If you can't see this chart, your browser doesn't understand IFRAME. However, we'll still<A HREF="http://www.thestreet.idmanagedsolutions.com/charts/common/quote.chart?SYMBOL_US=SPX &TIME_SPAN=6M&XAXIS_LABEL=1&WIDTH=290&HEIGHT=145" target="0">link</A>you to the chart.
DuPont(DD_), Kraft Foods(KFT_) and Walt Disney(DIS_) were leading the Dow higher while Bank of America(BAC_) and JPMorgan Chase(JPM_) were laggards as foreclosure woes continued to weigh on bank stocks.
Texas Instruments(TXN_) beat analyst expectations, reporting a profit of 71 cents per share on revenues of $3.7 billion. Wall Street's consensus view was for earnings of 69 cents a share on revenues of $3.69 billion. Shares were slightly higher in extended trading.
Amgen(AMGN_) said its profits decreased 14% to $1.3 billion in the third quarter from $1.5 billion a year earlier. Adjusted earnings per share came in at $1.36 beating consensus estimates of $1.27 per share. Shares of Amgen were slipping 0.7% in aftermarket trading.
At a Group of 20 summit ahead of the G-20 meeting next month, leaders agreed to avoid competitive currency devaluation to balance global trade but failed to set specific targets.
The dollar, which sunk to a new 15-year low against the yen earlier, was trading lower against a basket of currencies. The dollar index was last down by 0.4%. The weakness in the dollar has helped push commodities and stocks higher.
In economic news, the National Association of Realtors said existing-home sales jumped 10% in September to 4.53 million from 4.12 million in August, outpacing expectations for September sales of 4.25 million, according to Briefing.com.

Stocks have risen 3% so far in October on expectations that the Federal Reserve will implement quantitative easing to boost the economy. That has hurt the dollar while boosting demand for more risky financial assets such as equities and commodities. But uncertainty on the extent that quantitative easing will help stimulate job growth and the economy has caused some experts to question the sustainability of the rally.
Jim Paulsen of Wells Capital Management believes the rally has staying power. He says investors are being too pessimistic and have been suffering from "Armageddon hypochondria" since the height of the recession in 2008.
"We have been a nation on bubble watch," Paulsen told TheStreet, citing how worries have shifted from banks to deficits to the euro and now to the dollar. "There is this wall of worry in the market now that is keeping some people out. That is one reason why this rally will have legs."
Paulsen says that the re-acceleration in the market has more to do with the economy recovering from a soft patch rather than expectations of quantitative easing. He expects the S&P 500 to break out past 1200 if weekly unemployment claims drop below 450,000.
"I don't think it is a coincidence that we are pushing to 1200 at the same time when the four-week moving average of weekly unemployment claims is at its low. If unemployment claims break below to 425,000, people are going to feel a lot better and a 14 multiple and 2.5% Treasury yield is not going to look right," he said.