Bonds Recoil, Stocks Await Jobs

The Philadelphia Housing Sector Index jumped 1.6% Wednesday. It is up 4.1% this week. Shares of Hovnanian(HOV Quote), Meritage Homes(MTH Quote) and Ryland(RYL Quote) climbed between 1.7% and 3.3% Wednesday. Shares of Toll Brothers gained 0.4% Wednesday, but are also up 4% thus far this week.

Contributing to the heaviness in the Nasdaq on Wednesday was Yahoo!'s(YHOO Quote) management shake-up, which dragged its shares down 2.1%.

In addition, Novell (NOVL Quote) shed 5.4% after the business software developer posted disappointing quarterly results, and Oracle (ORCL Quote) lost 5.2% following some cautious comments from Lehman Brothers.

On the flip side, Ciena (CIEN Quote) jumped 6.7% after saying Verizon (VZ Quote) is using its equipment to offer additional services to phone customers.

In the Dow, Merck(MRK Quote) providend in-line earnings guidance for 2007 and said its restructuring is on track. But its shares couldn't get off the ground, falling 0.8%.

Elsewhere, Biovail (BVF Quote) jumped 9.6% after tripling its dividend and paring its sales force, while Burlington Northern (BNI Quote) shed 3.2% following a Merrill Lynch downgrade.

Otherwise, stocks mostly languished in an uncomfortable gray zone awaiting more reasons to rally. Thursday brings the weekly initial jobless claims -- another clue for Friday's consequential payrolls report.