Morning Market Roundup: Oil Up on Manufacturing Report, U.S. Home Prices Up, EU Banking Solution

Here’s what’s important in the business world this morning:

U.S. Home Prices: A measure of U.S. home prices jumped 4.6 percent in August compared to a year ago, the largest year-over-year increase in more than six years.

CoreLogic, a private real estate data provider, also says prices rose 0.3 percent in August from July. The sixth straight month of price gains, combined with rising home sales and increased builder confidence, point to a housing recovery that is becoming sustainable.

Other measures of home prices have increased. The Standard & Poor's/Case Shiller index rose in July compared to a year ago, the second straight yearly increase after two years of declines. And an index compiled by a federal housing regulator has also reported annual increases.

EU: Europe's banks should create a firewall between their traditional retail banking operations and more risky investment banking ones and force executives to personally take losses when their banks fail, a new expert report suggested Tuesday.

The most significant recommendation the report makes is that banks should separate their risky investment banking operations, like proprietary trading, from their more traditional retail operations, which lend to customers. The two entities could still be part of one big bank holding company but would have to separately meet the capital requirements, put in place to make sure banks have enough money to cover losses in tough times. In other words, the retail banking arm should never be used to prop up the investment arm if it makes bad trades, for instance.

The report also calls for increased surveillance of the banks and particularly of their management. It suggests that the executives should get some of their compensation in the form of "bail-in instruments." That would make management personally on the hook to help rescue their struggling bank.

Oil: The price of oil remained supported Tuesday by a report showing a rebound in U.S. manufacturing for the first time in four months. Of course, as noted yesterday on TheBlaze, this report is can be easily misleading for anyone who wants to know about the true state of the U.S. economy.

By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark oil for November delivery was up 18 cents to $92.66 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The contract closed up 29 cents at $92.48 in New York on Monday after a report showed U.S. manufacturing grew in September for the first time in four months.

In London, Brent crude, used to price international varieties of oil, was down 8 cents to $112.11 on the ICE Futures exchange.

U.S. Futures: U.S. stock futures rose on that aforementioned U.S. manufacturing report and despite concerns about the economic outlook of both Greece and Spain.

Dow futures are up 47 points to 13,484. The broader S&P 500 futures are 8 points to 1,445. Nasdaq futures are up 13 points to 2,801.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.