Daily Business News

While the drought in the Midwest is spiking the price of corn and a stable solution to the European debt crisis seems to slip away, investors took a back seat to the market as several Blue Chip companies turned in less than rosy corporate earnings reports for Q2 2012. As a result, CNNMoney tells us the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped -83.17 points, -0.65%, to close at 12,653.12. The Nasdaq dropped a full percentage point to 2,902.33, while the S&P fell just under 11 points to 1,341.47. The Yahoo! Finance Manufactured Housing Composite fell -0.42 percent to close at 1,008.00. Housing stocks we track closed mixed or even, some taking hard falls. Deer Valley gained the most of tracked stocks, adding +11.43%, +0.08, to close at 0.78. Patrick Industries dropped the most of stocks we track, falling -8.16%, -1.12, to close at 13.73. Affiliated Managers Group 107.44 -0.55 (-0.51%). Cavco Industries 46.67 -2.74 (-5.55%). Clayton Homes, Vanderbilt Mortgage and Finance, as well as MH home-building, lending and other housing suppliers parent company Berkshire Hathaway 124,985 +84.00 (+0.07%). Champion, Liberty Homes and Palm Harbor all remained unchanged. Drew Industries 28.66 -0.18 (-0.62%). Equity Lifestyle Properties 68.61 -0.95 (-1.37%). Louisiana Pacific Corp. 10.66 -0.57 (-5.08%). Nobility Homes 5.61 -0.24 (-4.10%). Skyline Corp. 4.89 -0.23 (-4.49%). Sun Communities 45.16 -0.32 (-0.70%). Third Avenue Value Fund (7-9) 45.23 -0.54 (-1.18%). United Forest Products, Inc. 38.85 -0.20 (-0.51%). UMH Properties 11.60 -0.10 (-0.85%).

(Graphic credit: CNNMoney and RealTick)