Daily Data Flow: Stocks Rise as Dell Goes Private; Another Housing Bubble?; Nikkei Snaps Five-Day Streak

Stocks Rise, Dell Going Private (Bloomberg)
After yesterday’s tumble, U.S. stocks began climbing again today amid strong earnings and the news that Dell has decided to be taken private in the largest post-financial crisis leveraged buyout. Dell is being bought by its CEO and founder, Michael Dell, and Silver Lake Management LLC. “There’s an underlying tidal wave,” Rob Morgan, chief investment strategist at McLean, Va.-based Fulcrum Securities LLC, said. “When you do get a pullback, that’s an excellent time to put some money to work in the stock market,” he said. “If insiders are buying their stock, that’s a positive sign. Here’s the ultimate insider of Dell, basically buying a controlling stake.”

A New Housing Bubble? (CNBC)
In parts of the country, housing prices, only about a year into the housing recovery, are increasing at rates previously seen just before the housing crash. Already, these numbers, which some observers have labeled “unsustainable,” are showing a slowdown. Analysts at Clear Capital, which runs a four-month moving average price index, noted that January’s numbers show “momentum stalls.”

Nikkei Ends Five-Day Winning Streak with High Volume of Profit Taking (Reuters)
Continued concerns regarding the euro-zone crisis led scores of investors to take profits from the exchange’s recent gains, resulting in the Nikkei’s highest volume in almost two years, but also its first down day following five straight days of increases, including yesterday’s 33-month high. “The Nikkei is seen rising further in the longer term, but the market has been looking for a correction. In the short term, the Nikkei’s resistance is seen around 11,300,” said Tsutomu Yamada, a market analyst at Kabu.com Securities. Yamada added that if the Nikkei breaches this level, the highest since April 2010, it likely will enter the next stage to chase the market higher to 12,000.