<font>New Residential Construction Industries Jump on Mortgages</font>

A number of industries related to residential home construction including New Residential Construction itself, moved higher today as mortgage rates continue to fall. Residential Construction moved higher 5.7% as an industry with Cement jumping 4.34% higher and Lumber/Wood Production also higher 3.66%.

By Steve Patterson

<font>Residential Building</font>

A number of names in New Residential Construction moved higher today including Brookfield Homes (BHS), Standard Pacific (SPF), Hovanian (HOV), Lennar (LEN), and Ryland (RYL). Brookfield Homes has bounced around recently with the economy, moving down to $3.30 a share in July and rebounding to $8.33 a share in September. Recently the stock has traded near $6.00. Sales have continued to fall for Brookfield, down 25% this quarter compared to a year ago along with quarterly losses improving. Many of the companies in the industry are seeing losses improve dramatically compared to a year ago even as sales continue to decline. The home builders are hoping for an additional First Time Home Buyer Credit to be passed by Congress but have not moved dramatically from their recent lows.

<font>Related Industries</font>

Cement names CRH (CRH), James Hardie (JHX), and Cemex (CX) all moved higher today in sync with Residential Construction. Lumber names that jumped upwards of 9.25% include Koppers Holding (KOP), Louisiana Pacific (LPX), and Weyerhauser Co (WY). Weyerhauser declared their dividend today of 5 cents.