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Message| (770)    A lot is being made of apparent weakness in
housing starts in January and December. But you may want to
think twice before putting too much weight on these headline
numbers.  First, housing starts are notoriously volatile with an
eye-popping standard deviation. For example, in the most recent
report, housing starts fell 8.5% from December to January. But
the standard deviation is 11.3%. This suggests the number may
actually have been positive rather than negative.  But even if
the number is negative, investors are likely better served
considering the longer trend.  Comparing housing starts against
last year offers a clearer, and more bullish, picture. January's
starts were 23.6% higher than the prior year, with a range of
error of 13.4%. Even considering the lowest result, you still
end up with near double digit growth.  Arguably, investors
shouldn't be paying much attention to housing starts at all.
After all, the market is a