US Stocks Higher On Housing Data; Financials Stay Lower

Stocks built on Monday's rally in a broad push higher Tuesday as investors digested encouraging housing data, though a rising supply of shares in several Wall Street bellwethers damped financials.

Major indexes seesawed between gains and losses through the day, but major milestones for the year remained in sight. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was recently up 30 points, or 0.4%, to 8751. At its morning high, the blue-chip measure rose about 66 points, almost 11 points above its 2008 close of 8776.39.

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Credit and Credibility , The Credit Crunch

With the economy in a downward spiral, more and more people are taking advantage of credit card offers to make ends meet, but are the credit card companies actually taking advantage of their customers? In the week in which federal regulators adopted sweeping new rules for the credit card industry, NOW meets families struggling to pay off their credit card debt. Such debt has become significantly larger thanks to questionable industry practices like doubling and tripling interest rates, increasing fees and penalties, and shrinking credit limits. We meet people like Andrew Spurlock and his wife Michelle, who are raising three children while watching the interest rates and fees on their credit cards skyrocket. Michelle was horrified when her interest rate jumped from seven percent to 30 percent from one day to the next, despite claiming she always paid her monthly minimum. Michelle and her husband are fighting off financial ruin as they struggle to pay off their debt. Harvard Professor Elizabeth Warren, an expert on debt and the middle class, says credit card companies are deceiving customers in order to maximize profits. "You would think that if you upheld your end of the contract that the contract would be binding. But in the case of credit cards, you would be wrong," Warren, tells NOW. This week, NOW takes a hard look at the small print in credit card offers, and at Congressional legislation aimed at regulating the industry. Are you getting the credit you deserve?

Gold Rises in New York, London as Weaker Dollar Boosts Demand

By Nicholas Larkin

June 2 (Bloomberg) -- Gold rose in New York and London as a decline by the dollar increased the metal’s appeal as an alternative investment. Silver also advanced.

The U.S. Dollar Index, a gauge of the currency’s value versus six counterparts, fell as much as 0.8 percent to the lowest since Dec. 18. Gold, which typically gains when the dollar weakens, touched a 14-week peak before closing yesterday and silver reached its highest in almost 10 months.

Investors continue “to track moves in the dollar, the key factor driving gold,” Pradeep Unni, an analyst at Richcomm Global Services in Dubai, said in a note. “As optimism grows that the worst of the economic downturn is over,” the correlation between gold and the dollar has returned, he said.

Gold futures for August delivery rose $1.90, or 0.2 percent, to $981.90 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange’s Comex division at 8:43 a.m. local time. The contract earlier fell as much as 1 percent. Bullion for immediate delivery in London gained $5.16, or 0.5 percent, to $980.43.

The metal slipped to $973.50 an ounce in the morning “fixing” in London, used by some mining companies to sell production, from $981.75 at yesterday’s afternoon fixing. Gold briefly traded above $1,000 in the U.K. capital on Feb. 20, the first time the metal had breached that price since March 2008, when it climbed to a record $1,032.70.

“The week is likely to be dominated by further developments on the currency market, with the rally possibly slowing down if the dollar holds above 79-78.5” as tracked by the index, Andrey Kryuchenkov, an analyst at VTB Capital in London, said in a note. The index fell as low as 78.524 today.

Gold Trust

Investment in the SPDR Gold Trust, the biggest exchange- traded fund backed by bullion, rose to a record 1,134.03 metric tons yesterday, the company’s Web site showed. That’s the first gain since May 22.

“One day of decent flows is not enough to change our minds on the near-term outlook for gold,” John Reade, UBS AG’s head metals strategist in London, said in a report. “We are seeing no strong physical gold investment, and we hold our one-month forecast for gold at $950 an ounce.”
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