Daily Data Flow: S&P Winning Streak Best Since 2004; Home Builders Try Apartment Rentals; Euro Hits 11-Month High

S&P 500’s Longest Winning Streak Since 2004 (Bloomberg)
Demonstrating the continuing rise of the economy from the depths of the Great Recession, profits in U.S. stocks today led the S&P 500 to its longest winning streak since 2004. “Day to day, it is earnings-driven at this point,” Tom Wirth, senior investment officer for Chemung Canal Trust Co., in Elmira, New York, said. “There’s a point in time where the market has gone up for so long, so much, that it’s got to take some period of time to consolidate those gains before it goes again.”

Home Builders Turn to Apartment Rentals (CNBC)
Due to competition from a hot rental market, many home builders are pushing resources towards construction of multi-family, rental apartment buildings. “There is always a need for construction of multi-family, and it has always been an important part of the housing picture,” says Stuart Miller, CEO of Miami-based Lennar, one of the nation’s largest public home builders.

Paybacks Move Euro to 11-Month High (MarketWatch)
Today, as European banks geared up to repay an expectations-surpassing segment of cheap, three-year loans from the European Central Bank, the euro hit an 11-month high against the U.S. dollar. “This isn’t ‘good news’ for the euro-zone economy and it increases the divergence between the euro (trending higher on the back of decreased strains in the financial system and de facto tighter ECB policy) and the underlying economy, which isn’t in good shape,” said Kit Juckes, head of foreign exchange at Société Générale.