Housing data lifts Wall Street

By Ellis Mnyandu

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rose for a fourth straight day on Tuesday as an upbeat report on home sales bolstered hopes for an economic recovery as well as shares in construction companies.

But a sell-off in financials on worries about the dilutive impact of recent stock offerings limited a broader advance.

An index of pending sales of previously owned U.S. homes shot up 6.7 percent in April, the biggest monthly gain in 7-1/2 years, according to the National Association of Realtors.

The data suggested that the recession is easing, and investors snapped up shares of home builders, with Toll Brothers (TOL.N) rising nearly 4 percent to $19.53, while DR Horton (DHI.N) shot up 4.1 percent to $9.63.

The Dow Jones home construction index .DJUSHB was up 3.2 percent.

Shares of big manufacturers also rose, with plane maker Boeing Co (BA.N) gaining 3.1 percent and ranking among the Dow's major advancers. Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N), 3M Co MMMM.N, Coca-Cola (KO.N) and Alcoa Inc (AA.N) also bolstered the blue-chip average.

"Some news is starting to come out that says things are stabilizing and slowly starting to look better," said Dan Faretta, senior market strategist at Lind-Waldock, a retail brokerage firm, in Chicago. "We've still got companies going under, filing for bankruptcy, and unemployment is continuing to rise ... but we are starting to finally hit the bottom."

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI added 19.43 points, or 0.22 percent, to 8,740.87. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX gained 1.87 points, or 0.20 percent, to 944.74. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC rose 8.12 points, or 0.44 percent, to 1,836.80.