Indexes climbed after the Commerce Department said home purchases reached a 14-year high on a seasonally adjusted annual rate.
The S&P 500 was up 1.1% to 3,272.12 in midday trading.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.1% to 27,051.09.
The Nasdaq increased 1.3% to 10,772.34.
The yield on a 10-year Treasury bond decreased 1% to 0.67%.
Oil declined 0.13% to $39.88 a barrel.
The price of gold was down 0.26% to $1,873 an ounce.
FINANCE
OC banks moved higher than the general market, rising 4% to 7% apiece.
Irvine-based Pacific Premier Bancorp Inc. (Nasdaq: PPBI) climbed 4% to $19.42 with a $1.8 billion market cap. Santa Ana-based Banc of California Inc. (NYSE: BANC) increased 7.2% to $9.08 a share with a $491 million market cap. First Foundation Inc. (Nasdaq: FFWM) in Irvine rose 4% to $12.90 a share with a $576 market cap.
Trading volume at each bank was less than half than the daily average of the past three months. The KBW Nasdaq Bank Index, which tracks regional banks, climbed 1.9% to 71.20.
