COMMENTS:

MARC PADO, U.S. MARKET STRATEGIST, CANTOR FITZGERALD & CO. IN SAN FRANCISCO LEADING INDICATORS

"It was a little light. But when you dig into the component data it's actually not that bad in terms of the major contributors to what builds the index. The big drags were building permits and credit. So you can see it's more centered around housing.

NEW HOME SALES

"When you get into the winter months you really need to shake off the focus on sales because it's annualized numbers and because sales during the winter are so small. They're annualizing them (so) it makes the little fluctuations bigger."

PETER JANKOVSKIS, CO-CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER, OAKBROOK INVESTMENTS, LISLE, ILLINOIS

"Overall, even though leading indicators were short of expectations, the details were pretty good.

"If you take into account last month's revision, there is improvement compared to the prior month, which was what they were expecting."

"New home sales was a bit of a disappointment, but this time of year it's kind of tricky looking at the seasonal adjustments. I don't see it as pointing to another downturn."

"I certainly see the data for the day as a net positive, particularly when you look at the durable goods number (out earlier on Thursday)"

FRED DICKSON, CHIEF MARKET STRATEGIST, D.A. DAVIDSON & CO., LAKE OSWEGO, OREGON

"The housing data I'd say is just kind of flattish. It looks like we've hit a little bit of a mid-winter stall in terms of activity on the housing front in spite of the fact that mortgage rates are very, very low. We should start to see a pickup in the upcoming months."

LOU BRIEN, MARKET STRATEGIST, DRW TRADING GROUP, CHICAGO

"It certainly missed expectations and notably it missed expectations on sales even though the median price fell $5,000 from November and is down $31,000 from last December. But in the bigger picture we're bouncing along. It's not necessarily deteriorating anymore but that's not good at this sales rate.

"Some of the recent data on housing has been relatively better than expectations and that takes a little bit of a grain of salt because remember we had that massive revision by the NAR on existing home sales recently. With this data coming in a little bit worse than expected it may have a little bit more of an effect on the market than if the other data had just been sort of static."

WILLIAM LARKIN, PORTFOLIO MANAGER WITH CABOT MONEY MANAGEMENT IN SALEM, MA

"New home were sales slightly lower, but they seem stable. From the standpoint of an investor, the box has been checked, this is a neutral number. Not good, but not alarming. This is secondary on everyone's radar today, as everyone is looking into the sales figures in all the earnings reports."

DAVID SLOAN, ECONOMIST, IFR ECONOMICS, A UNIT OF THOMSON REUTERS

"December's new home sales pace of 307k was well below a consensus estimate of 320k, returning the level to that seen in October after a rise to 314k in November. The data comes as a disappointment with most recent housing indicators having been positive. While the balance of evidence remains that the housing sector is seeing some response to low mortgage rates, this data serves as a reminder that the sector is still weak and we cannot yet be confident of a strong and sustained boost to GDP from housing in 2012. Prices were mixed on the month, but sharply negative yr/yr data shows that the picture is on balance negative."