Wednesday

After a four-day slide, investors showed tentative signs of bargain-hunting, which helped the market battle back from a triple-digit loss today. The market moves came after a second straight day of weak news from the housing sector, as new-home buying fell to a record low in July amid rising inventories and falling prices. While analysts had expected a drop in new-home buying, they had not expected sales to drop as much as they did. Investors also digested weaker-than-expected demand for U.S. manufactured durable goods, which gained by just .3% in July, against expectations of a 2.8% gain. DJIA +19.61 Nasdaq +17.78 S&P 500 +3.46.