Wall St. buoyed by billionaires buying sprees

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks could continue their recent run as top U.S. investors revealed new or increased stakes in major companies, and housing starts showed an unexpected jump.

Stock futures gained on the housing news, pointing to a higher open for U.S. stocks. Stocks closed mixed Tuesday, with the Dow Jones industrial average again hitting a new record, while the S&P 500, the broader blue chip index, as well as Nasdaq lost ground.

The pace of home building showed an unexpected jump in April, but builders signaled their lack of faith in the market by cutting back on the number of permits for additional homes to a nearly 10-year low.

Tuesday the National Association of Home Builders reported that its builders' confidence survey once again fell to the 15-year low hit late last year, and said that even a sluggish recovery in the battered market won't take place until at least 2008.

Investment guru Warren Buffett revealed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing after the close Tuesday that Berkshire Hathaway (Charts, Fortune 500) has taken stakes in two major U.S. railroads -- Norfolk Southern (Charts, Fortune 500) and Union Pacific (Charts, Fortune 500) - as well as in the health care sector with purchases of insurer Wellpoint (Charts, Fortune 500) and an increased stake in Dow component Johnson & Johnson (Charts, Fortune 500). All four companies gained in after-hours trading.

And hedge fund manager Edward Lampert disclosed that his investment firm had purchased 15 million shares of Dow component Citigroup (Charts, Fortune 500), the nation's largest financial services company. While that's only 0.3 percent of its shares outstanding, the news was enough to lift Citi shares 1.6 percent in after-hours trading.

In addition, George Soros revealed that he has more the doubled his holdings in Microsoft (Charts, Fortune 500), while trimming his holdings in Oracle (Charts, Fortune 500) and selling his stakes in online auction firm eBay (Charts, Fortune 500) and video game publisher Take-Two Interactive (Charts). Microsoft was narrowly higher in after-hours trading, while Oracle and Take Two both gained and shares of eBay fell.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates disclosed that he his foundation had purchased stakes in Tractor Supply Co. (Charts) and restaurant chain operator P.F. Chang's China Bistro (Charts) as well as Time Warner Cable (Charts). Meanwhile activist shareholder Carl Icahn bought a big stake in Anadarko Petroleum (Charts, Fortune 500), sending its shares up 1.1 percent in after-hours trading. His filing also disclosed he had trimmed his holdings in media conglomerate Time Warner (Charts, Fortune 500) by nearly half over the course of the first quarter. Time Warner is the parent of CNNMoney.com.

But the tech heavy Nasdaq could be under more pressure again Wednesday after computer maker Dell (Charts, Fortune 500) disclosed that the New York Attorney General is suing the company charging it with deceptive sales practices and not living up to promises on technical support. The company denied the charges and said it will defend itself. Shares of Dell lost 0.5 percent in after-hours trading. Its rival, Hewlett-Packard (Charts, Fortune 500), is due to report results after the bell on Wednesday.

Applied Materials (Charts, Fortune 500), which makes equipment used by computer chipmakers, reported better-than-expected earnings after the close Tuesday, but its shares fell 5 percent in extended trading on what was seen as disappointing sales guidance.

Oil prices were lower in early trading, ahead of the 10:30 a.m. ET government report on U.S. fuel inventories. U.S. light crude fell 35 cents to $62.82 a barrel in electronic trading

Shares in Asia closed narrowly higher in most major markets, with Japan's Nikkei posting only a 0.09 percent gain. After the close there Sony (Charts) reported a wider quarterly loss on Wednesday due to losses in its game unit, but it forecast a sharp rise in profit this year. Meanwhile stocks in Europe were slightly lower in early trading.

Treasury prices were higher, taking the yield on the 10-year note to 4.69 percent from the 4.7 percent level reached late Tuesday. The dollar was higher against the yen but little changed against the euro.

At 9:15 a.m. comes a government report on industrial production and capacity utilization, which is forecast to show a narrow 0.3 percent rise in factory output, along with a narrow increase in utilization rate to 81.5 percent in April from 81.4 percent in March.