The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that housing starts rose a bit in September, helped by a rise in single-family home construction, but this bit of good news came with some bad news that applications for new home construction were down in the month.

According to the report, construction of new homes and apartments rose by 0.5% in the month, to an annualized rate of 590,000 units. While any growth for housing starts comes as good news in the current market, it is not as good as it appears at first glance, considering that analysts had been expecting to see the annualized rate increase to 610,000 units.

Fastenal Company (NASDAQ: FAST), a company that sells supplies to the construction industry and whose colleagues include W.W. Grainger (NYSE: GWW) and MSC Industrial Direct Co. (NYSE: MSM), didn't do so well in its third quarter. According to Reuters, per-share profit missed expectations by a penny, coming in at 32 cents. Net sales, however, met expectations at $489 million.

A comparison of this year's data to last year's results also indicates a rather tepid performance. Fastenal earned 49 cents per share in the year-ago period according to the actual press release. In addition, the current quarter's top line saw a decline of well over 20%. The economy is limiting Fastenal's ability to grow, no question about that.

Last Friday the market reacted favorably (or less negatively) to the latest report from the Labor Department's unemployment figures of 9.7 percent in August, as employers cut 216,000 jobs last month. The percentage is up but the raw numbers are trending down allowing for a sigh of relief on Wall Street with the major indices all up over 1%.

Many would argue that when it comes to the truth, the government is prone to favor aesthetic figures instead of the straight data. I tend to agree with this view as the numbers appear sculpted to be the least offensive.

There was in increase in construction of single family homes in July, marking the fifth straight month for such an increase.

It should come as no surprise, after we learned yesterday that homebuilder confidence had rose to a new 12-month high. According to the commerce department, construction on new single family homes rose 2%, and permits for future construction jumped an impressive 6% during July.

I'm reiterating my Buy rating for Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT), first recommended on April 13, 2009 at a price of $33.02. If you purchased CAT at that time, you're up a solid 41%.

Back in April, I put CAT in the not-for-the-squeamish category, due to the uncertain timetable for the U.S./global recoveries: the upside was always there, but so was the potential for a 30% hair cut.

We get a second piece of positive news out of the housing industry in as many days today as the Commerce Department announced this morning that new home construction jumped 3.6% in June.

No one is going to put forth the argument that the housing market is all of a sudden in good shape again, but we are starting to see signs that things could be at least leveling off, which is the first step that needs to be made.

Markets were mixed and downish Tuesday, but there was some good news to be found.

Housing starts and building permits soared, causing a big pop in shares to battered homebuilders. Whether this is a false start or a real jump, its hard to get anything but good news out of a housing market so beaten down.

On the industrial side, the Produce Price Index remained relatively stable, walking the narrow path between two evils -- deflation and inflation.

Oil prices have been steadily heading higher the past month, and today was no exception, as the precious crude managed to close today's trading at its highest value in 2009.

While we are still no where near the record high prices we were seeing last summer, oil has managed to slowly creep its way up to $54.58 a barrel. This was after a rise on the day of $1.73, and it is a clear sign that analysts believe that global demand is about to move in oil's favor.

If you already own the stock, Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) is a play that's likely to test the patience of most investors.

In general, analysts expect CAT to post lower earnings per share through the first half of 2009, then recover in the second half, as various international markets start to recover.

Good morning! A New York Times article reports that cheap booze is seeing a nice sale spike as folks swap out premium or even mid-market brands for rotgut. Popov & Tonic, anyone? The Prince of Darkness over at Zero Hedge illuminates us as to the possibility that a major supplier of financing to rural electrical cooperatives could go dark, taking down dozens of utilities in the sticks with it. Maverick ratings agency Egan Jones began calling this a while back.

Investing, like the politics that leads to U.S. public policy, is the art of the possible.

Conditions shift, windows of opportunity present themselves, even amid choppy seas. One such opportunity is presenting itself with Fluor (NYSE: FLR).

Fluor is a leading international design, engineering, and contracting firm with projects that include designing and building manufacturing facilities, refineries, pharmaceutical facilities, health care buildings, power plants and telecommunications and transportation infrastructure.

We all know the harsh reality of the tough economy we are in. We are dealing with a recession that no one can foresee ending at this point. This morning we got another hint at how bad things are with the release of 2008 construction figures, which showed construction spending in 2008 fell by a new record amount.

The Commerce Department released December construction figures today, which showed spending in December fell for the third month in a row, with a reported 1.4% decline during the month. This was a bit worse than the revised 1.2% decline that analysts had been expecting to see for the month. Previously, the November figure was showing a drop in spending of only 0.6%.

Oil prices flirted with the psychological $40 barrier today after a report from the U.S. government showed that inventories swelled much more than expected last week.

Going into today's weekly inventory report, analysts had been expecting to see in crude inventories of around 1.9 million barrels. While that would have been a bearish indicator in its own right, the actual figures were a much more bearish reality that U.S. demand is still not picking up as we would like, as actual oil inventories rose by a massive 6.1 million barrels for the week.

It's been a tough day all around for oil, as the market has been hit not only with today's bearish inventory report, but also news earlier in the day that new home construction in December hit an all time low, and that Asian economies have been extremely hard hit with recessions of their own.

U.S. housing starts decreased 6.3% in September -- the U.S. Commerce Department announced Friday, as builders attempted to reduce supply amid the nation's worst housing slump in more than a generation. (pdf)

Housing starts fell to an 817,000 annual rate in September, the U.S. Commerce Department announced. It was the lowest housing start pace in 17 years. (pdf)

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had expected housing starts to total an 880,000 annualized rate in September. Housing starts for August were revised lower to 872,000 from 895,000.

Over the past four months, housing starts have averaged a 932,000 annual pace, down from 973,000 for the four months ending in August.

Further, single family home starts fell 12% to a 544,000 annualized rate in September, their lowest level in 16 years.

Also, building permits declined 8.3% in September to a 786,000 annualized rate -- a 27-year low.

In addition, housing starts are down 31.1% in the past year, single-family starts are down 42%.

U.S. housing starts fell again in August, indicating that the worst housing slump in a generation will continue to weigh on the U.S. economy.

Starts of new homes declined 6.2% in August to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 895,000, the U.S. Commerce Department announced Wednesday. It was the lowest new home start rate in 17 years (pdf).

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had expected housing starts to total a 950,000 annualized rate in August.

Meanwhile, starts of single-family homes fell 1.9% to a 630,000 annualized rate.

Economist Glen Langan said the housing market remains "a terrible market if you're trying to sell a home, and still a risky market if you're thinking of buying a home."

"Conditions vary by region, but in general the U.S. housing market remains in a deep slump. Unless you absolutely have to or you find your 'dream house,' it makes sense to a wait a few months to see if the market stabilizes, mortgage availability factors being equal," Langan said. "In most regions of the U.S. home prices and sales are falling and that's why we're seeing a declining rate of new home starts by home builders."