Stocks Rose on Strong Economic Data

U.S. stocks rose sharply on Tuesday as Wall Street cheered upbeat economic data showing increases in durable-goods orders, new-home sales and consumer confidence. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 100.75 points or 0.69 percent,  to 14,760.31, the S&P 500 gained 14.94 points or 0.95 percent, to 1,588.03 and the Nasdaq Composite added 27.13 points or 0.82 percent, to 3,347.89.

Orders for durable goods rose 3.6% to a seasonally adjusted $231 billion, matching the increase in April, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. Economists polled by had forecast a 3.8% gain.

Sales increased 2.1% last month to an annual rate of 476,000, the Commerce Department said, providing more evidence of  the robust recovery underway in the U.S. housing market.

The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index jumped to 81.4 in June, the best reading since January 2008 and up from 74.3 in May. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected a 74.0 reading.

Scout Capital Management, a U.S. hedge fund, said on Tuesday it is urging Canadian coffee and doughnut chain Tim Hortons (THI.TO) to increase its debt levels in order to fund a share buyback, measures that Scout say should help
drive up Tim Horton’s share price by as much as 100 percent from current levels.