Penny stocks continue to be the seedy underbelly of the broader market. It is where fortunes can be made in minutes and life savings lost in the next. That has definitely been true over the past few days as we have seen stock promotions shoot up 100%+ only to crash back to earth.

On the broader market, AAPL is ruling the day with the announcement of its buy-back and dividend program. Once a bastion of low-growth stocks, dividends were normally something you put in your portfolio for that security. Like everything else Apple touches, it seems to have made the dividend cool again.

With Apple supporting the Nasdaq, the Dow is being led higher by Bank of America. Housing data helped fuel the turnaround during middy trading. The National Association of Home-builders and Wells Fargo both said their sentiment indexes remained at their highest levels in 5 years.

Investors are hopeful that continued good economic data will help fuel the market to greater heights. Housing will continue to be the focus the rest of the week. [Read more...]