Ellington

DANIEL WAGNER, AP Business Writer

U.S. stocks are wavering between small gains and losses in early trading after an encouraging report about the state of the housing market.

The government said Wednesday that construction of new single-family homes in August occurred at the fastest rate in more than two years.

World markets rose earlier after the Bank of Japan announced a massive asset purchasing plan similar to what the Federal Reserve approved last week. Japan's main index hit a four-month high.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up seven points at 13,571 after 10 minutes of trading. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was down a point at 1,458. The Nasdaq composite index was down four at 3,173.