Dow Advances, MH Composite Declines

Stocks rose Thursday as claims for jobless benefits last week dropped to the lowest level in almost four years. That’s one rung on the economic recovery ladder, but adding to the chorus of need for improvement in the housing market, former Alcoa CEO and Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill tells Bloomberg News said its hard to imagine recovery without housing. “Housing is a really important part of this and its hard to see a really robust economy without housing starts moving up above a million,” O’Neill says. The Dow ended the day up 45 points.

The Yahoo Finance Manufactured Housing Composite Index ended the day down, but many individual stocks advanced. Those include Allied Management Group, up $2.03 (2.05 percent) to $101.20; Clayton Homes, Vanderbilt Mortgage and Finance, as well as MH home-building, lending and other housing suppliers parent company Berkshire Hathaway up $1,145.00 (.97 percent) to $119,360; Cavco, up .06 cents (.14 percent) to $42.83; Equity Lifestyle Properties, up .14 cents (.21 percent) to $66.50. Patrick Industries, up .31 cents (5.05 percent making it the day’s biggest advancer) to $6.45; Skyline Corp., up .06 cents (1.09 percent) to $5.54; Universal Forest Products, up .03 cents (.09 percent) to $34.05 and UMH Properties, up .24 cents (2.58 percent) to $9.56.

Losing share value Thursday were Drew Industries, down .20 cents ( .80 percent) to $24.80; Nobility Homes, down .40 (7.55 percent) to $4.90; Sun Communities, down .19 cents (.52 percent) to $4.90 and Walker Dunlop, down .18 cents (1.49 percent) to $11.89.

Champion, Deer Valley, Liberty and Palm Harbor neither lost or gained share value Thursday.

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