US shares opened lower on Tuesday but were making up ground as housing figures cheered, there was a flurry of corporate earnings but traders were still put off by macro concerns.
At the time of writing, the benchmark Dow Jones Index is down 20 points at 17,522, while the broader based S&P500 is down 14 at 5,078. Both indices had been lower earlier.
Housing starts, that's literally breaking ground to build a new home, rose to an eight year high last month (July).
The number was lifted in July 0.25 to 1.21 million units, which was the highest level since October 2007- that's before the big financial meltdown kicked off, official figures showed.
Meanwhile, June's starts were revised sharply higher to a 1.2 million-unit rate from the previously reported 1.17mln figure.
One economist suggested it increased the likelihood of a Fed interest rate rise next month (September), when combined with other upbeat reports.
Chinese worries are still in focus however with shares in Shanghai tanking again overnight
"All the news out of China recently has done nothing to restore confidence in its financial markets, notes IG analyst David Madden in round-up of morning trades. The tumbling copper prices and crude oil price falls did nothing to improve sentiment.
In corporate news, the big story was behemoth retailer Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT), whose shares were down 2.64% in early deals after it warned on profits.
It lowered its per share earnings forecast for the year to US$4.40-US$4.70 from up to US$4.70-5.05 previously after missing Wall Street forecasts for the second quarter.
Sticking to the housing theme, Home Depot (NYSE:HD), the world’s largest home-improvement retailer, reported better-than-expected second-quarter results and boosted its outlook amid recovery in the U.S. housing market. Shares added 3.3% to US$123.66.
Elsewhere, the owner of US home shopping channel QVC, Liberty Interactive is acquiring womens' and kids online clothing specialist Zulily (NASDAQ:ZU) in a deal worth US$2.4bn. Shares in Zulily surged earlier but are now down 0.485 to US$18.67 , while Liberty Interactive Corp's (NASDAQ:QVCA) were up 1.33% to US$30.20.
In smaller caps, MagneGas (NASDAQ:MNGA), which has a patented process to convert liquid waste into a fuel, said Harris Industrial Gases is to distribute its product for metal cutting. MagneGasd shares added 1.96% to US$1.04.
Harris has multiple locations throughout California and Nevada, and has received its first order in Nevada from a demolition company. Harris anticipates placing additional orders in the coming weeks.
A notable riser was Parker Drilling Company, which added almost 16% to US$2.86 after it had an upgrade from Evercore to a 'buy'.
Aegean Marine Petroleum (NYSE:ANW) eased 18% as its second quarter numbers failed to impress. It reported US$0.15 Earnings Per Share for the quarter, missing the analyst consensus estimate by US$0.11.
Spyros Gianniotis, Aegean's Chief Financial Officer, said: "We delivered another quarter of profitability despite market headwinds impacting the business."