The drop in U.S. manufacturing activity in June for the first time in almost three years was tempered by investors’ hopes the Federal Reserve would provide some stimulus for the sluggish economy, as stocks closed mixed for the first day of the second half of 2012. CNNMoney tells us the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell -8.7 points, -0.07%, to close at 12,871.39. The Nasdaq rose +16.18 points to 2,951.23, while the S&P gained +3.35 points to 1,365.51. The Yahoo! Finance Manufactured Housing Composite fell -1.89 percent to close at 1,046.70. Housing stocks we track all closed up, or even, except Cavco Industries. Patrick Industries gained the most of stocks we follow, adding +4.86%, +0.62, to close at 13.37. Cavco fell -3.37%, -1.73, to end the trading day at 49.55. Affiliated Managers Group 110.57 +1.12 (+1.02%). Clayton Homes, Vanderbilt Mortgage and Finance, as well as MH home-building, lending and other housing suppliers parent company Berkshire Hathaway 125,495 +550.00 (+0.44%). Champion, Liberty Homes, Deer Valley, and Palm Harbor all remained unchanged. Drew Industries 28.19 +0.34 (+1.22%). Equity Lifestyle Properties 69.67 +0.70 (+1.01%). Louisiana Pacific Corp. 10.97 +0.09 (+0.83%). Nobility Homes remained unchanged at 5.69. Skyline Corp. 5.10 +0.01 (+0.20%). Sun Communities 45.19 +0.95 (+2.15%). Third Avenue Value Fund (6-29) 44.82 +1.26 (+2.89%). United Forest Products, Inc. 30.10 +0.12 (+1.63%). UMH Properties 11.16 +0.43 (+4.01%).
