Shares of Apple are up 0.45% to 316.71in early trading after Thursday’s release of better-than-forecast weekly jobless claims, strong business activity numbers, and as U.S. housing starts soared nearly 17% in December and reached a 13-year high.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 32 points higher, or 0.1%. The S&P 500 gained 0.2% while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.4%…
In the U.S., housing starts soared nearly 17% in December and reached a 13-year high. That data follows Thursday’s release of better-than-forecast weekly jobless claims and strong business activity numbers from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve.
Friday’s gains added to an already solid weekly performance. Through Thursday’s close, S&P 500 and Dow are up more than 1.5% each while the Nasdaq is up nearly 2%.
MacDailyNews Take: The tide continues to rise! A strong economy obviously benefits makers of coveted goods such as Apple. It also benefits AAPL shareholders. Plus the multi-year super cycle that’ll be kicked off by “iPhone 5G” looms!
Some details: Housing starts jumped 16.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.608 million units last month, the highest level since December 2006. Data for November was revised higher to show homebuilding rising to a pace of 1.375 million units (vs. the previously reported 1.365 million units). Housing starts were up 40.8% year-over-year in December.