The struggling U.S. housing market got some good news Tuesday as housing starts came well ahead of expectations, suggesting that the market may finally be nearing a bottom.

Housing starts totaled 583,000 in February, compared with the 450,000 figure economists expected, from 466,000 in January.

Foreign purchases of U.S. debt increased in the first month of 2009, according to a Treasury report released Monday, easing some concerns that overseas investors have lost their appetite for U.S. debt.

According to the Treasury International Capital (TIC) report released Monday, net foreign purchases of long-term Treasurys were $10.7 billion in January, down from a $15 billion rise in December. Still, the report relieved many investors' worries about the recently volatile TIC data, which showed foreign investors had sold a net $25.8 billion of Treasurys in November.

The world's biggest pharmaceutical companies are rushing to merge.  Pfizer's $68bn takeover of Wyeth kicked off the consolidation in January, followed by Merck's $41.1bn for rival Schering-Plough. Roche and Genentech recently ended their protracted takeover effort with a friendly accord under which the Basel health care major will pay $95 a share for the 44% of the South San Francisco biotech giant it doesn't already own.

Prices have dropped so low that cash-ready investors and first-time buyers are making multiple offers on distressed properties. Sales in Fairfield, CA - a town about 40 miles from both San Francisco and Sacramento where more than 80% of homes for sale are owned by banks or by homeowners facing foreclosure - jumped 226% in the fourth quarter of last year compared to the same quarter in 2007 and home prices during that period fell 19% to $179,500, according to mortgage and housing data analytics company First American CoreLogic.