NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stock index futures held gains on Tuesday after data showed U.S. home prices fell more than expected in November.

Futures were trading higher on signs of progress in dealing with Europe's long-running sovereign debt crisis.

S&P 500 futures rose 5.8 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration of the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures added 46 points and Nasdaq 100 futures gained 11 points.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wall Street held gains on Wednesday, after the Federal Reserve took the historic step of setting an inflation target of 2 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) was up 46.01 points, or 0.36 percent, at 12,721.76. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) was up 7.53 points, or 0.57 percent, at 1,322.18. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) was up 28.97 points, or 1.04 percent, at 2,815.61.

(Reporting By Angela Moon; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

OAKLAND, Calif. – Anti-Wall Street demonstrators held vigils for an Iraq War veteran seriously injured during a protest clash with police in California as some occupy encampments held out against orders from authorities to abandon sites in parks and plazas.

A crowd of at least 1,000 people, many holding candles, gathered Thursday night in Oakland in honor of 24-year-old Scott Olsen who is hospitalized with a fractured skull.

Protesters also held a vigil in In Las Vegas, which drew a handful of police officers. Afterward, protesters invited them back for a potluck dinner.

“We renewed our vow of nonviolence,” organizer Sebring Frehner said.

The Marine veteran, who won medals in Iraq, has become a rallying cry for the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators across the nation, with Twitter users and protest websites declaring, “We are all Scott Olsen.”

Joshua Shepherd, 27, a Navy veteran who was standing nearby when Olsen got struck, called it a cruel irony that Olsen is fighting an injury in the country that he fought to protect.

Despite the financial underpinnings of the protests, Olsen himself wasn’t taking part out of economic need.

His friends say he makes a good living as a network engineer and has a nice apartment overlooking San Francisco Bay. Still, he felt so strongly about economic inequality in the United States that he fought for overseas that he slept at a protest camp after work.

“He felt you shouldn’t wait until something is affecting you to get out and do something about it,” said friend and roommate Keith Shannon, who served with Olsen in Iraq.

It was that feeling that drew him to Oakland on Tuesday night, when the clashes broke out and Olsen’s skull was fractured. Fellow veterans said Olsen was struck in the head by a projectile fired by police, although the exact object and who might have been responsible for the injury have not been definitively established. Officials are investigating exactly where the projectile came from.

Elsewhere across the United States, officials took steps to close some of the protest camps that have sprung up in opposition to growing economic inequality.

Even as the vigil was held in Oakland, protest organizers prepared to defy Oakland’s prohibition on overnight camping at a plaz near City Hall.

Shake Anderson, an organizer with Occupy Oakland, said half a dozen tents were erected on the plaza Thursday evening where police armed with tear gas and bean bag rounds disbanded a 15-day-old encampment Tuesday. More tents, food and supplies arrived during the meeting and vigil for Scott Olsen, with about 25 tents erected late Thursday.

“We believe in what we’re doing,” Anderson said. “No one is afraid. If anything, we’re going to show there’s strength in numbers.”

Few police were seen in the area during late Thursday night, though Oakland Mayor Jean Quan issued a statement asking protesters not to camp at the plaza.

In Nashville, Tenn., officials imposed a curfew, saying conditions at a camp at the state Capitol were worsening.

Protesters at San Francisco’s Justin Herman Plaza braced for a police raid early Thursday that never came. Still, police have warned the protesters that they could be arrested on a variety of sanitation or illegal camping violations.

Officials told protesters in Providence, R.I., that they were violating multiple city laws by camping overnight at a park.

Anti-Wall Street protesters camped out in downtown Los Angeles said they’re planning to continue their demonstration indefinitely, although both they and the mayor’s office were eyeing alternate sites.

Meanwhile, Olsen has been improving. Doctors transferred him from the emergency room to an intensive care unit and upgrading his condition to fair.

Dr. Alden Harken, chief surgeon at Alameda County Medical Center, said Olsen was still unable to speak but had improved dramatically since he was hospitalized unconscious with a fractured skull and bruised brain that caused seizures.

By Thursday afternoon, Harken said, Olsen was interacting with his parents, who flew in from Wisconsin in the morning, doing math equations and otherwise showing signs of “high-level cognitive functioning.” The doctor said he may require surgery, but that’s unlikely.

“He’s got a relatively small area of injury and he’s got his youth going for him. So both of those are very favorable,” Harken said.

Olsen smiled when Mayor Jean Quan stopped by to visit and expressed surprise at all the attention his injury has generated, hospital spokesman Vintage Foster said. The mayor apologized and promised an investigation, according to Foster.

His uncle in Wisconsin told The Associated Press that Olsen’s mother was trying to understand what had happened.

“This is obviously a heartbreaker to her,” George Nygaard said. “I don’t think she understands why he was doing this.”

The group Iraq Veterans Against the War blamed police for Olsen’s injury. Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan said officials will investigate whether officers used excessive force. He did not return calls seeking comment Thursday.

Police have said they responded with tear gas and bean bag rounds only when protesters began throwing bottles and other items at them.

On Tuesday night, Olsen had planned to be at the San Francisco protest, but he changed course after his veterans’ group decided to support protesters in Oakland after police cleared an encampment outside City Hall.

“I think it was a last-minute thing,” Shannon said.

A video posted on YouTube showed Olsen being carried by other protesters through the tear gas, his face bloodied. People shout at him: “What’s your name? What’s your name?” Olsen just stares back.

People at OPSWAT, the San Francisco security software company where Olsen works, were devastated after learning of his injuries. They described him as a humble, quiet man.

Olsen had been helping to develop security applications for U.S. defense agencies, building on expertise gained while on active duty in Iraq, said Jeff Garon, the company’s director of marketing.

Olsen was awarded seven medals while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, which he left as a lance corporal in November 2009 after serving for four years. One of them was the Navy-Marine Corps Achievement Medal.

Olsen moved to the Bay Area in July, and quickly found friends in the veterans against the war group.

His tours of duty in Iraq made him more serious, Shannon said.

“He wasn’t active in politics before he went in the military, but he became active once he was out … the experience in the military definitely shaped him,” Shannon said.

___

Dearen reported from San Francisco. Associated Press writers Dinesh Ramde in Milwaukee, Garance Burke in San Francisco, Julie Watson in San Diego, Lucas L. Johnson II in Nasvhille, Tenn., and Michelle Rindels in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wall Street hopes for more Fed action and clear signs European leaders will follow through on their new urgency to tackle the euro zone debt crisis if U.S. stocks are to build on their best week since early July.

Investors expect the Federal Reserve to take steps to pull down long-term interest rates when policymakers meet on Tuesday and Wednesday to help revive the persistently weak U.S. economy.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, speaking in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on August 26, said the Fed's Open Market Committee would meet for two days in September instead of the scheduled one day to discuss ways to boost the recovery.

But even with expectations of more intervention to boost the economy, investors will keep a close eye on developments in Europe.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index (.SPX) posted a 5.4 percent gain last week, its best since early July. The Nasdaq composite index (.IXIC) gained 6.3 percent for the week while the Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) rose 4.7 percent

Any lack of progress or backsliding on efforts to get the currency bloc's fiscal house in order will renew worries the crisis could seriously damage the world financial system and major economies.

"The Fed is really going to dominate next week," said Paul Mendelsohn, chief investment strategist at Windham Financial Services in Charlotte, Vermont.

"But the market has been trying to work its way higher here, trying to feel if maybe the European thing won't cascade out of control."

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, at a meeting of euro zone finance ministers in Poland on Friday, urged them to leverage their bailout fund to better tackle the debt crisis, but there was no agreement on what steps to take.

While the Standard & Poor's 500 (.SPX) has been moving upward over the past week, the benchmark index has been stuck in roughly a 100-point range over the last six weeks.

It is likely to run into resistance near the 50-day moving average of about 1,228, with analysts also pointing to the 1,250 level as the next significant hurdle.

"This is really a consolidation phase, which is normal after the kind of early August swoon that we had. So far this trading range is developing in a very positive and healthy way," said Gail Dudack, chief investment strategist at Dudack Research Group in New York.

"Longer term, the market is looking better but we are getting very close to that resistance at 1,250, which would be pretty surprising if we can break above that at this early juncture. It could take a little more time, people shouldn't be disappointed."

This week's economic calendar includes reports on the beleaguered housing market along with weekly initial jobless benefits claims.

Housing "is dead and it will stay dead, and I don't expect anything out of unemployment either," said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading in Chatham, New Jersey. "The biggest event is Bernanke."

Companies due to post earnings this week include homebuilder Lennar Corp (LEN.N), Nike Inc (NKE.N), General Mills Inc (GIS.N) as well as technology companies Adobe Systems (ADBE.O), Red Hat Inc (RHT.N) and Oracle Corp (ORCL.O).

FedEx Corp (FDX.N), the No. 2 U.S. package delivery company, which is seen as a proxy for how the economy is performing, is also scheduled to report quarterly results.

Though earnings have managed to hold up in the face of a lackluster recovery, analysts worry this might not last if the financial system suffered the shock of a Greek debt default.

But while many feel Bernanke has telegraphed the plans for the Fed meeting, the euro zone debt crisis remains an uncertainty that could knock the market lower.

"It's absolutely the wild card because Europe's problems may be similar to what we saw in 2008, but they are much more difficult to deal with because country debt is far more difficult to deal with than mortgage debt," Dudack said.

She added that having so many countries that are part of a committee trying to solve the problem only added to the complications.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wall Street hopes for more Fed action and clear signs European leaders will follow through on their new urgency to tackle the euro zone debt crisis if U.S. stocks are to build on their best week since early July.

Investors expect the Federal Reserve to take steps to pull down long-term interest rates when policymakers meet on Tuesday and Wednesday to help revive the persistently weak U.S. economy.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, speaking in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on August 26, said the Fed's Open Market Committee would meet for two days in September instead of the scheduled one day to discuss ways to boost the recovery.

But even with expectations of more intervention to boost the economy, investors will keep a close eye on developments in Europe.

Any lack of progress or backsliding on efforts to get the currency bloc's fiscal house in order will renew worries the crisis could seriously damage the world financial system and major economies.

"The Fed is really going to dominate next week," said Paul Mendelsohn, chief investment strategist at Windham Financial Services in Charlotte, Vermont.

"But the market has been trying to work its way higher here, trying to feel if maybe the European thing won't cascade out of control."

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, at a meeting of euro zone finance ministers in Poland on Friday, urged them to leverage their bailout fund to better tackle the debt crisis, but there was no agreement on what steps to take.

While the Standard & Poor's 500 (.SPX) has been moving upward over the past week, the benchmark index has been stuck in roughly a 100-point range over the last six weeks.

It is likely to run into resistance near the 50-day moving average of about 1,228, with analysts also pointing to the 1,250 level as the next significant hurdle.

"This is really a consolidation phase, which is normal after the kind of early August swoon that we had. So far this trading range is developing in a very positive and healthy way," said Gail Dudack, chief investment strategist at Dudack Research Group in New York.

"Longer term, the market is looking better but we are getting very close to that resistance at 1,250 which would be pretty surprising if we can break above that at this early juncture. It could take a little more time, people shouldn't be disappointed."

The week's economic calendar includes reports on the beleaguered housing market along with weekly initial jobless benefits claims.

Housing "is dead and it will stay dead, and I don't expect anything out of unemployment either," said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading in Chatham, New Jersey.

"The biggest event is Bernanke."

Companies due to post earnings next week include homebuilder Lennar Corp (LEN.N), Nike Inc (NKE.N), General Mills Inc (GIS.N) as well as technology companies Adobe Systems (ADBE.O), Red Hat Inc (RHT.N) and Oracle Corp (ORCL.O).

FedEx Corp (FDX.N), the No. 2 U.S. package delivery company, which is seen as a proxy for how the economy is performing, is also scheduled to report quarterly results.

Though earnings have managed to hold up in the face of a lackluster recovery, analysts worry this might not last if the financial system suffered the shock of a Greek debt default.

But while many feel Bernanke has telegraphed the plans for the Fed meeting, the euro zone debt crisis remains an uncertainty that could knock the market lower.

"It's absolutely the wild card because Europe's problems may be similar to what we saw in 2008, but they are much more difficult to deal with because country debt is far more difficult to deal with than mortgage debt," Dudack said.

She added that having so many countries that are part of a committee trying to solve the problem only added to the complications.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Reserve looks set to maintain its ultra-loose monetary policy on Tuesday as lofty oil prices and swooning stock markets after Japan’s ravaging earthquake raised doubts about the economy’s path.

The worst earthquake on record for the world’s third- largest economy could have substantial ripple effects on the global recovery — as evidenced by a sharp pullback in global equity prices, with Japanese stocks down over 10 percent.

But with the full impact still unclear, economists say the best thing for Fed officials to do at the moment may be nothing at all.

Even before the tragedy, U.S. central bankers faced confusing signals. Despite high unemployment, rising energy costs appear to be nudging up the price expectations of U.S. consumers, the first inklings of an inflationary psychology the Fed would like avoid.

“It’s very tricky because calling out an increase (in expectations) would be a meaningful move in a hawkish direction,” said Andrew Tilton, economist at Goldman Sachs.

At the same time, not acknowledging the recent pick-up seen in both market indicators and consumer surveys might make the Fed appear out of touch, eroding its inflation-fighting credentials.

In a statement due around 2:15 p.m. (1815 GMT), policymakers are likely to nod to recent improvement in the economy while seeking to avoid any suggestion that they intend to cut short a $600 billion bond-buying program announced in November.

Fed officials, who began their meeting at 8:30 a.m. (1230 GMT), will likely do so by beefing up their assessment of economic conditions while emphasizing just how far the central bank remains from its targets for both inflation and employment.

PROMISE AND WORRY

Since the Fed’s last meeting in January, the U.S. economy has continued to show signs of promise. The U.S. unemployment rate has fallen rapidly, down to 8.9 percent in February from 9.8 percent in November.

Still, the pace of hiring suggests further progress will be painfully slow for the 8-million-plus Americans who lost their jobs during the economic slump of 2007-2009.

At the same time, higher gasoline costs have created fresh concerns for consumers, with a big hit to confidence this month raising concerns about whether a recent spurt in consumer spending can be sustained.

The U.S. economy expanded at an annualized rate of 2.8 percent in the fourth quarter, a respectable performance but one not seen fast enough to restore the job market to full health any time soon.

Some economists thought growth could approach 4 percent this quarter, but have pared back projections, in part because of an unexpected widening in the U.S. trade deficit.

The Fed chopped overnight interest rates down to effectively zero in December 2008 and since then has committed to buying a total of some $2.3 trillion in mortgage and Treasury securities to keep long-term borrowing costs down and support the recovery.

Those plans have proven controversial, with domestic critics arguing the Fed is courting future inflation while officials in emerging markets have accused the central bank of trying to boost U.S. exports by devaluing the dollar.

With the economy strengthening, officials are likely to have a vigorous debate on how best to eventually tighten policy, but analysts expect only minor changes to the Fed’s statement.

Analysts will have to wait until minutes of the meeting are released in early April to get a fuller flavor of the discussions.

NEW YORK (AFP) – US stocks closed higher on Tuesday, buoyed by a strong rise in November retail sales as the all-important holiday shopping season nears its peak.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 47.98 points (0.42 percent) to close at 11,476.54, reaching its highest level in 27 months.

The S&P 500 index, a broader measure of the market, was up 1.13 points (0.09 percent) to 1,241.59, while the tech-rich Nasdaq rose 2.81 points (0.11 percent) to 2,627.72.

Financial stocks were the main laggards, with shares of Citigroup declining 2.5 percent and those of JPMorgan losing 1.7 percent and Bank of America declining 1.1 percent.

The tone for trade was set early in the day, when the Commerce Department released data showing US retail sales rose more than expected in November for a fifth straight month of gains.

Retail and food services sales for November rose 0.8 percent from the prior month to 378.7 billion dollars, the department said.

The increase was much better than the 0.5 percent rise expected by economists and signaled Americans were more willing to open their wallets, fueling consumer spending that makes up two-thirds of US economic activity.

“Overall, the November retail sales report was a strong report that flew in the face of the weak wage growth reported in the November employment report,” said Patrick O’Hare at Briefing.com.

The data came shortly after electric appliance retailer Best Buy posted disappointing quarterly earnings, with a five percent drop in US sales, even though it included Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving considered one of the shopping peaks of the year.

Best Buy’s reported a 217 million dollar profit in the quarter ending November 27, compared with 227 million dollars in the same period last year. Its shares slumped nearly 15 percent on the news.

Later trade was choppy amid news that the Federal Reserve will maintain near-zero interest rates and its massive 600 billion dollar asset purchasing program launched last month.

The Federal Open Market Committee said the US economic recovery was chugging forward, but too slowly to reduce high unemployment rates.

“The FOMC statement made for a volatile afternoon as stocks sold off, treasuries sold off, and the dollar rallied,” said analysts at briefing.com.

In other corporate news, shares of General Electric rose 0.4 percent after it forecast solid growth in 2011.

The bond market declined.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury bonds rose to 3.45 percent from 3.29 percent on Monday, while that of the 30-year bond climbed to 4.56 percent from 4.40 percent. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.