By msnbc.com staff and wire services
Stocks spiked in late morning trading Wednesday after a poll of homebuilding industry leaders showed they were more optimistic than at any time in the last four-and-a-half years.
Approaching 11 a.m. on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.48 percent, the S&P 500 rose 0.57 percent and the Nasdaq was 0.84 higher.
The market opened slightly lower, seemingly nonplussed by the International Monetary Fund?s plan to bolster lending the struggling eurozone countries.
Traders received a mixed bag of data too. The Labor Department said producer prices fell in December but a measure of underlying inflation climbed higher. The Federal Reserve reported that industrial production surged in December, rising 0.4 percent after falling 0.1 percent in November.
Sources told Reuters the IMF needs to raise up to $600 billion in new funds to lend to countries struggling with the fallout from the debt crisis. Initial reports called for the IMF seeking $1 trillion.
"The fact they went from $1 trillion to $500 billion once again causes people to stop, pause, think," said Ken Polcari, managing director at ICAP Equities in New York.
Greece was set to meet with creditors in the latest attempt to snap a deadlock in negotiations to slash the country's debt and prevent a default.
"Overall the European situation has shown remarkable stability so far this year in light of the downgrades and now the story percolating around Greece," said Peter Jankovskis, co-chief investment officer at OakBrook Investments LLC in Lisle, Illinois.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc reported that quarterly profit fell but still beat estimates.
"Goldman Sachs is kind of a mixed bag because they beat on earnings quite substantially but missed on revenues so it will be interesting to see what the market's final take is on that. At the end of the day it will probably end up being a positive," said Jankovskis.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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