As hard as it may seem, there is indeed other news out there. 

Though the credit crisis is integral to the future of Wall Street, Main Street, and everything in between, investors should still keep an eye on individual stocks as they manage their portfolios.

These individual stock stories can provide clues into the health of an industry and valuable information that the market can use to value underlying stocks.  As the price of a stock is a discounted value of future cash flows, real news can shed light on the accuracy of our projections.

Take for example the homebuilding industry. The difficulty in predicting the future of the sector results in stock prices that tend to be quire volatile (see, "Toll Brothers (TOL): Nothing to Write Home About").

The market has expected a bottom in the homebuilding space that for much of 2008. That bottom has yet to materialize, even though homebuilding stocks have been some of the best performers in a difficult year.

Now we get more evidence of the bottomless pit with the release of Lennar Corp.'s (LEN) fiscal third quarter results.

One of the nation's largest builders, LEN announced that the company lost $0.56 per share as compared to the estimate of $0.52.  The losses actually narrowed from previous quarters as a result of large cost cutting efforts by the company. More troubling though is that revenue dropped by 53%. 

In the period, LEN generated $1.11 billion down from $2.34 billion in the year ago quarter.  Deliveries of new homes dropped by 49% with average home price down by nearly 10%.

Guess what?  The stock is up on the news, at least as of this writing.  We'll see if it holds.

There was no word from the company on when the crisis can be expected to end.  Instead, we hear that foreclosures and supply continue to weigh on the company. 

In response, LEN is...