Homebuilder stocks were broadly higher Tuesday, as they outperformed the broader stock market, after upbeat government data on housing starts for November. The SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF /zigman2/quotes/202739297/composite XHB -0.59% hiked up 2.5% in midday trade, with 34 of its 35 equity components trading higher. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 /zigman2/quotes/210599714/realtime SPX -0.11% rose 0.8%. Among the homebuilder ETF's most active components, shares of D.R. Horton Inc. /zigman2/quotes/202032328/composite DHI +0.44% shot up 5.4%, PulteGroup Inc. /zigman2/quotes/201694804/composite PHM +0.27% rallied 4.1%, Lennar Corp. /zigman2/quotes/202536373/composite LEN -0.45% climbed 4.4%, Toll Brothers Inc. /zigman2/quotes/201912487/composite TOL -4.88% tacked on 3.8% and TRI Pointe Group Inc. /zigman2/quotes/204302452/composite TPH +0.51% rose 4.0%. Earlier, the Commerce Department said housing starts ran at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.256 million last month, beating the MarketWatch consensus for a 1.23 million pace. That follows a string of downbeat housing market data, including the National Association of Home Builders saying Monday that its monthly confidence index fell to a 3 1/2-year low in December. Despite Tuesday's rally, the homebuilder ETF was still down 16.6% over the past three months, while the S&P 500 /zigman2/quotes/210599714/realtime SPX -0.11% was 11.6% lower.
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