National home prices tumbled by 7.7% in the first quarter in a recent survey. While retail sales did fall -0.2% overall in the month of April, the ex-autos numbers were actually positive by +0.5%. Below are the unofficial closing levels for major averages:

• DJIA 12,833.97 (-42.34; -0.33%)
• S&P500 1,403.42 (-0.16; -0.01%)
• NASDAQ 2,495.34 (+6.85; +0.28%)
• 10YR-TBond 3.909% (+0.134%)
• TOP 10 ANALYST CALLS

Clear Channel Communications Inc. (NYSE: CCU) was up again on news of a settlement between the buyers and the banks for the $20 billion delayed buyout by Bain Capital and THL Partners. The court was adjourned until 2 pm today to allow settlement talks to continue. Shares were up 4% to $34.24 at the end of the day.

I've met Web.com's (NASDAQ: WWWW) CEO Jeff Stibel several times. When he came on board the company about two years ago, things were fairly bleak. The hosting company was bleeding lots of red ink and had no vision.

That changed quickly with Stibel. He cut costs and remade the company by changing the branding, adding new services and putting together some key alliances.

It was all encouraging. But despite everything, Wall Street was not responding. Then again, in the small cap world, it's not easy to get the attention of investors and analysts.

So last week, Web.com agreed to sell out to Website Pros (NASDAQ: WSPI) for $6.5233 per share or $129 million.

In the combination, there will be much more scale to attack the large market opportunity for small and medium size business (SMB) web sites. There are about 25 million in the US.

With the Deal, Website Pros will have $117 million in annualized revenues and 234,000 paid subscribers. But as more and more SMBs move to the Net, Website Pros will continue to benefit and I think get the attention of investors as well.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.