Minutes released from the Federal Reserve’s last meeting in June reveal about half of the Fed’s officials want the bond-buying program to end this year, seemingly at odds with Reserve’s Chairman Ben Bernanake who had earlier projected it would end mid 2014. In any case, stocks moved slightly higher after the minutes were released, ending a slide in the Dow. CNNMoney reports the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 8.68 points, -0.06 percent, to close at 15,291.66. The Nasdaq rose +0.47 percent, +16.50 points, to end the day at 3,520.76, while the S&P edged up +0.02 percent, +0.30 points, to close at 1,652.62. The Yahoo! Finance Manufactured Housing Composite gained +1.01 percent to end the session at 1161.5. Most housing stocks we follow closed mixed or even, with Skyline Corp. notching the biggest gain of tracked stocks, +5.00 percent, +0.19 points, to finish the day at 3.99. Universal Forest Products, Inc and Clayton Homes, Vanderbilt Mortgage and Finance, as well as MH home-building, lending and other housing suppliers parent company Berkshire Hathaway fell the most of stocks we track in today’s trading, both dropping -0.65 percent. UFPI fell to 38.48, a drop of -0.25 points. Clayton Homes dropped -1,136.00 points to 172,605. Affiliated Managers Group 165.74 -0.67 (-0.40%). Cavco Industries 51.44 +0.19 (+0.37%). Champion, Liberty Homes and Palm Harbor continued unchanged. Deer Valley remained unchanged at 0.64. Drew Industries, Inc. 40.92 -0.35 (-0.85%). Equity LifeStyle Properties 81.80 +0.50 (+0.62%). Louisiana Pacific Industries 16.20 +0.53 (+3.38%). Nobility Homes remained unchanged at 7.50. Patrick Industries 22.14 +0.26 (+1.19%). Sun Communities, Inc. 52.09 -0.33 (-0.63%). Third Avenue Value Fund (July 9) 54.58 +0.43 (+0.79%). UMH Properties, Inc. 10.84 -0.07 (-0.64%).
