Well it’s been a back and forth day for the major indices.  Stock are currently higher even with the 3.6% drop in WTI earlier, which basically gave back all its gain from yesterday before starting to recover.  Consumer Discretionary, Financials, Industrials and Technology are strong while Energy and Utilities lag.   At midday, the advancers are leading decliners on the NYSE 1792/1153 and the Nasdaq 1729/1007.

The Case-Shiller Index, the leading measure of U.S. home prices, released today for the 20-City Composite rose 5.0% year-over-year, versus expectations of a 5.1% increase.  Portland, Oregon led the way with a price increase of 12.4%. Seattle saw an increase of 11.2%, while Denver gained 9.4%.

The consumer seems to be optimistic about the current state of the economy as the Consumer Confidence Index hit its highest since August 2007, coming in at 104.1 in September, blowing away estimates that the number would drop to 99.0 from last month’s reading of 101.8.  Will have more on this in the morning report.