Stocks surge again as crude oil nears $52

Stocks (^DJI, ^GSPC, ^IXIC) are rallying at the midday mark, with the energy sector (XLE) taking the lead and consumer staples (XLP) the most in the red. Keith Bliss of Cuttone & Co. joins us live from the New York Stock Exchange.

To discuss the other big stories of the day, Alexis Christoforous is joined by Yahoo Finance editor-in-chief Andy Serwer and Mark Martiak, senior wealth strategist at Premier Wealth First Allied Securities.

Q3 earnings breakdown

Seventy of the S&P 500 companies have now reported. Of these, 78% have beaten their earnings-per-share estimates, and 60% have beaten on revenue. Overall, it’s a 4.0% beat for those 70 companies, but after estimates are included for the remaining, expectations are for a decline of -1.0%. That’s according to FactSet.

Google as case study in earnings, revenue growth

Now we want to turn to a business that has delivered years of consistent revenue and earnings growth: Google. Profits at the company famous for its search engine topped $16 billion in 2015, up from about $4 billion in 2008. Revenues reached nearly $75 billion last year—more than double in 2010. And yesterday the stock hit an all-time high, partly after positive reviews of the company’s new Pixel phones.

New data suggests millennials will drive US housing market

Turning to real estate, it looks like millennials are about to take a bigger share of the US housing market. New research from Zillow shows half of US homebuyers are now under 36. And another survey shows first-timers now make up 52% of the people planning to buy homes in 2017. Realtor.com did the same survey last year and found that only 33% of prospective buyers were first-timers. Finally, other research shows mortgages for first-time home buyers has recovered to 2001 levels.