Stocks advance amid Japan stimulus, American housing data

A strong home sales report and falling oil prices helped push stock prices modestly higher on Wednesday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up for the sixth time in the past seven sessions, gaining 13.32 points to 13,577.96. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 4.82 points to 3,182.62, and the S&P 500 Stock Index added 1.73 points to 1,461.05.

The National Association of Realtors reported existing home sales rose 7.8 percent in August compared to the previous month to an annualized rate of 4.82 million units, the highest number since May 2010. The median existing home prices were up 9.5 percent over the past 12 months to $187,400.

Oil prices were down sharply on Wednesday after the Energy Information Administration reported a big increase in reserves. Crude closed at $91.98 a barrel, down $3.31. Gold was little changed, down 50 cents to $1,771.70 an ounce.

The S&P 500 rallied 15 percent from its most recent low on June 1 through Sept. 14, when it reached its highest level since December 2007. The index is trading at 14.1 times the estimated earnings of its companies, close to the highest price multiple since the end of 2010, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

A report showed construction began on more single-family homes last month than at any time in the past two years.

“The housing data looked decent,” said Tom Mangan, who helps oversee $3.6 billion as a money manager at James Investment Research Inc. in Xenia, Ohio. “There’s still a lot of uncertainty about the economy, Europe and the Middle East, yet the stock market remains relatively firm.”

Global stocks gained earlier after Japan’s central bank unexpectedly expanded its asset-purchase target by 10 trillion yen ($126 billion) to 55 trillion yen, seeking to avoid a further slowdown in the world’s third-largest economy.

Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) gained 1.5 percent to $52.70 for the biggest advance in the Dow. Kraft Foods Inc. (Nasdaq: KFT) added 1 percent to $40.84. Home Depot (NYSE: HD), the largest U.S. home-improvement retailer, rose 1 percent to $59.47.

Consumer discretionary and phone stocks increased at least 0.7 percent, the most out of 10 industry groups in the S&P 500. All 11 members of the S&P Supercomposite Homebuilding Index advanced. PulteGroup Inc. (NYSE: PHM) soared 4.3 percent to $16.43, and D.R. Horton Inc. (NYSE: DHI) climbed 4.1 percent to $22.22.

Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW), the world’s largest maker of glass for flat-panel televisions, rose 1.2 percent to $12.88 after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) raised its recommendation for the stock to "buy" from "neutral."

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc. (Nasdaq: CBRL), which runs country store-themed restaurants with attached gift shops, added 5.8 percent to $67.31 after forecasting fiscal year 2013 profit of as much as $4.70 a share.

Groupon Inc. (Nasdaq: GRPN), the operator of the biggest daily deals website, rose 14 percent to $5.34 after announcing the start of a payments service to provide merchants with low fees for credit-card transactions.

An index of energy stocks in the S&P 500 lost 0.9 percent, with Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: OXY) and Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE: SLB) losing 2 percent each to pace declines in 38 of 45 companies in the group.

CVS Caremark Corp. (NYSE: CVS), the largest provider of prescription drugs in the United States, jumped 0.7 percent to $47.71 after saying it plans to buy back as much as $6 billion in shares.