U.S. MARKET AVERAGES

It was a day when market advance put bears under pressure.

The steady rise in broader averages managed to overcome the ever increasing volatility in the oil and commodities market, inverted yield curve in the bond market and weakness in the housing market.

Government reported declining sales of new homes in January. Five percent decline in the housing sales in January was higher than anticipated by the most economists. Market will watch the sale on existing-home to be released tomorrow.

Merger news dominated European trading as French government supported merger of Gaz de France and Suez of $38 billion blocking the purchase from Italy’s Enel. France has been involved in a similar deal blocking maneuver to prevent takeover of Arcelor by Mittal Steel.

General Electric and investment fund controlled by Australian Bank Macquarie Bank are reported to be competing to purchase electricity distribution business of TXU for more than $5 billion.

Semiconductor stocks, casinos and apparel retailers rallied while home builders, energy explorers, miners and financial brokers fell during the day.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

Dana Corp. (DCN: chart), auto-parts maker, said it was in discussions with banks to resolve its financing difficulties and would come to a resolution within two weeks. On Friday the stock tumbled as it obtained a waiver from its lenders over its required credit rating on its accounts-receivable-securitization program. On Monday the stock surged 30%.

Wilshire Enterprises (WOC: chart) received an acquisition proposal from Mercury Real Estate Advisors LLC, an affiliate of real estate investment firm Mercury Partners LLC. The offer values Wilshire at $8.50 per share in cash, a slight premium to Wilshire''s Friday closing price of $8.20. The company’s shares gained 3.8%.

Superior Essex (SPSX: chart) ,wire and copper maker, posted Q4 earnings drop of 16.7% to $3 million, or 18 cents a share, hurt by non-cash equity compensation and a bad debt provision for customer insolvencies. Excluding special items, earnings per share surged 79% to 25 cents a share and revenue rose 37% to $523 million. Company’s shares dropped 9.3%.

Vodafone group (VOD: chart), U.K. mobile operator, announced it will write off up to $49 billion of its assets, mostly relating to its German business. The stock fell 4%.

ECONOMIC NEWS

The Department of Commerce released its report on new home sales in the month of January on Monday, showing that sales fell compared to an upwardly revised reading for the month of December.

The report showed that new home sales fell 5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.233 million units in January from a revised rate of 1.298 million units in December.

Economists had been expecting new home sales to come in at a 1.278 million unit rate compared to the 1.269 million unit rate originally reported for December.

The drop in new home sales reflected double-digit percentage declines in each of the four regions of the country. Sales in the Northeast showed a notable decline, falling 14.5 percent.

The report also showed that the seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of January came in at 528,000, representing a supply of 5.2 months at the current sales rate.

INTERNATIONAL MARKETS NEWS

Asian-Pacific benchmarks advanced across the region helped by strong fund flows with the yen extending recent rally on speculations that the Bank of Japan will end its easy monetary policy and increase interest rates. The Nikkei climbed 0.5%, supported by energy, steel and insurance stocks. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.6%, South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.6%, and Shanghai Composite added 0.4%. The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive index surged 0.7%.