Stocks Get Data Boost

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Stocks held onto gains Wednesday afternoon, supported by better-than-expected new-home sales and jobless claims, which helped offset the drop in durable goods orders and larger oil stockpiles.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up by 28 points, or 0.3%, to 10,461. The S&P 500 rose 4 points, or 0.4%, to 1110 and the Nasdaq was up by 9 points, or 0.4%, to 2178.

Material stocks highlighted the day, though the financial segment lagged a bit. The KBW Bank Index recently slid by 0.2%, as JPMorgan Chase(JPM Quote) and Bank of America(BAC Quote) shed 1.2% and 0.8%, respectively.

Kraft(KFT Quote) shares suffered the largest decline on the Dow by the afternoon, down 1.7%. Caterpillar(CAT Quote) and Walt Disney(DIS Quote) were helping offset those declines, adding 1.7% and 1.5%, respectively.

Stocks made modest gains following a flurry of morning economic reports. New-home sales surged 6.2% to a seasonally adjusted rate of 430,000 in October, which was better than the modest growth of 0.5% that economists expected. The median sales price of $212,200 climbed 1% from the previous month and was nearly unchanged from a year ago, according to the Commerce Department.

The data add to mounting evidence that the housing market is gradually improving. Earlier in the week, existing-home sales came in better than expected, and home prices rose for the second consecutive quarter.

Shares of homebuilders ticked higher, with the SPDR S&P Homebuilders(XHB Quote) exchange-traded fund up by 13 cents, or 0.9%, at $14.71.

Gold, which has been soaring on dollar weakness, also got a lift from news that the Reserve Bank of India is interested in snapping up the International Monetary Fund's remaining 201.3 tons of gold. The December contract settled at $1,187 an ounce after soaring $21.20. The dollar was down by over 0.8%, according to the Dollar Index.

Shares of gold miners surged as investors sought to capitalize on higher gold prices. The Market Vectors Gold Miners(GDX Quote) exchange-traded fund was up by $1.33, or 2.6%, at $52.78. Shares of Barrick Gold(ABX Quote) were up by 2%, and AngloGold Ashanti(AU Quote) rose nearly 5%.