A great piece of news with housing starts surprising on the upside.  For better or worse, the housing market is the 800 pound gorilla in the US market.  Any good news in that area will immediately lift spirits and help cyclical companies in particular.

I added a little bit to some of my weaker core equity names, KO, GE and even added a bit to my speculative position in BAC.  In addition, I am looking to add to my NY Muni fund- MHN.  I think this is a great long term holding for those in the NY area.  No state or federal taxes and it yielding over 6%.  It is NOT risk free, however.  Aside from the NY risk (heavily dependent on the financial industry) the fund borrows in the short term to buy long term securities to the tune of 40% of the portfolio.  This juices up the yield, but introduces the risk that if short term interest rates rise, then borrowing costs go up and the fund will not be able to provide extra yield and may lose money liquidating securities to repay the borrowing.

I still like the name because I do not think short term interest rates are going anywhere for years and in case I am wrong, I have bought options that will hedge this risk a bit (these are options on Eurodollar futures and if anyone is truly interested in this, send me a comment and I will elaborate).