Good news on housing and oil

WASHINGTON (NBC) - There is good news for housing Monday, as well as good news on oil, at least for consumers. Yet, the stock market took a turn for the worse right before closing. Monday marks a triple-win for the economy. People are buying more homes, gas may soon be even cheaper and the stock market appears to be landing on steady ground.
For most of the day, the Dow Jones industrial average was in positive territory, but a sell-off in the last half-hour, the Dow landed down 203 points. Washington is trying to help the credit crunch. The government started investing in nine major banks buying their stocks so those banks can lend people money.
"We started with the banks, because that's targeted to providing more credit to the economy, but there are a lot of industries coming in and saying they need federal assistance," said Assistant Treasury Secretary David Nason.
Automakers such as General Motors and Chrysler are talking about a merger. Both want government help beyond the $25 billion Congress set aside to make more fuel-efficient cars. The White Hosue said automakers with their own financing divisions may qualify just like banks to sell stock to the government.
"I'm just saying it's a possibility that they could qualify under it," said White House Press Secretary Dana Perino. "There's the application form that Treasury announced last week, and if those companies apply for that, it's possible that they could be included in it."
Homebuilders got good news Monday. Even during last month's Wall Street crisis, more people bought new homes. The Commerce Department reports said sales were up 2.7 percent in September. Existing home sales are up as well.
"People respond to incentives," said Lawrence Yun, an economist with the National Association of Realtors. "They see historically low mortgage rates and the price cuts on the homes that is being offered and people are saying, 'This is too good to give up.'"
Home sales are up and oil prices are down to their lowest point in almost a year and a half. Monday's national average price for regular unleaded is $2.66 a gallon, even after OPEC cut production last week to meet lower deman. Yet, oil traders appear to be ignoring OPEC, instead keeping a close eye on the stock market.