NEW YORK — Signs of strength in the housing market Tuesday pushed the Dow Jones industrial average to its second straight gain of more than 100 points.
An increase in the number of people with contracts to buy homes and the first profit at homebuilder D.R. Horton in three years raised hopes that one of the weakest parts of the economy is improving.
The Dow rose 111 points Tuesday, boosting its two-day gain to 230 points and extending a recovery from a slide in January.
The National Association of Realtors, a trade group, said its index of sale contracts rose 1 percent in December. It was the ninth improvement over the past 10 months.
“It’s a slow, sustainable growth,” said Daniel Penrod, senior industry analyst for the California Credit Union League.
The home-sales report was the latest bit of encouraging news on the economy. Stocks rose Monday after a surprisingly strong reading on the manufacturing industry, and on Friday the government reported that the U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 5.7 percent in the final three months of 2009, a faster pace than expected.
On Tuesday, the Dow rose 111.32, or 1.1 percent, to 10,296.85. The S&P 500 index rose 14.13, or 1.3 percent, to 1,103.32, while the Nasdaq composite rose 18.86, or 0.9 percent, to 2,190.06.
