New car sales up 20 per cent in August

(Reuters) - U.S. auto sales are expected to increase by as much as 20 percent in August as better financing deals and an improving housing market encouraged consumers to replace aging cars and trucks.

Bernanke says progress is too slow

(Reuters) - New orders for U.S. factory goods rose more than expected in July, posting the biggest increase since July 2011 and rising for the second time in three months.

(Reuters) - Consumer sentiment climbed to a three-month high in August as households made progress paying down debt... .

(Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Friday said progress in bringing down U.S. unemployment was too slow and the central bank would act as needed to strengthen the economic recovery.

Consumer spending up

(Reuters) - Consumer spending got off to a fairly firm start in the third quarter, rising by the most in five months and offering hope economic growth could pick up this quarter.

Everything ticking slightly up

Economic activity expanded gradually across the Federal Reserve’s 12 districts in July and early August, the central bank said in its anecdotal Beige Book report. The labor market held steady or showed only slight signs of improvement in most districts. Meanwhile, the housing sector, retail spending and credit conditions broadly improved. -- Fox Business

Q2 GDP higher than originally thought

A second reading on U.S. gross domestic product showed the economy expanded at an annualized rate of 1.7% in the second quarter, in line with economists' estimates and faster than an initial estimate of 1.5%. - FoxBusiness

Clearly, we are wrong and the experts are right

There’s still a 100 percent chance the world heads into recession, Marc Faber, publisher of “The Gloom, Boom & Doom Report,” told CNBC’s “Closing Bell” on Thursday, echoing a call he made in May.

Source: CNBC

Home sales up higher than expected in July; manufacturing up in August for first time in five months

Sales of new single-family homes rose 3.6% in July from June to an annualized rate of 372,000 units. Analysts were expecting an annualized rate of 365,000 units.

U.S. Manufacturing PMI rose to 51.9 in August from 51.4 in July, the first monthly increase in five months. Readings over 50 point to expansion while readings below 50 indicate contraction. 

Source: Fox Business

Looming fiscal cliff, says Fed, will stall economy

Members of the Federal Reserve’s policy-setting committee pared back their expectations for short-term U.S. economic growth as a result of tepid consumer spending and employment growth, Federal Open Market Committee minutes reveal. The FOMC warned that a potential intensification of the European debt crisis and the looming fiscal cliff also present ‘significant downside risks’ to the outlook. As such, the FOMC considered new policy options, including a large-scale asset purchase program and the extension of the Fed’s low-rate pledge to jump-start the economy. Source: FoxBusiness email alert

Home sales up in July in US

Sales of existing homes rose 2.3% in July from June to an annualized rate of 4.47 million units, coming up short of the 4.52 million rate expected, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Source

Economists grossly underestimated June trade deficit drop

Fox business is reporting that the Commerce Department reported the U.S. trade deficit fell 10.7% to $42.9 billion in June from the month before. The deficit was the narrowest since December 2010 and considerably smaller than the $47.5 billion economists expected.

This seems to be a HUGE miscalculation. Is it normal to miss these things by this much? Or is there something screwy going on here?

Irish consumer sentiment hits two-year high in July

(Reuters) - Irish consumer sentiment hit a two-year high in July on more positive economic news in Ireland and as fears of a major escalation of the euro zone debt crisis receded.

McDonald's has worst July in 9 years

McDonald's has reported that they have had their worst July in nine years.

The news is liable to kick the crap out of the Dow because everyone is going to jump to the conclusion that McDonald's is some kind of key indicator of what's going on with consumers.

It may be AN indicator, but there are other forces at work here.

People may actually be trying to eat a little healthier, even though the media would have you believe otherwise.

Parents may be steering their kids away from junk food a little more often.

People may be eating at home more. That's a bad thing for restaurants but not necessarily so for families.

The McDonald's news is going to whack the market, which is going to lower consumer sentiment, which is going to make everyone even more nervous, and the reverberations are going to be global.

There is something fundamentally wrong with the way this whole thing works, says the guy who took one economics course and thinks elasticity has something to do with Silly Putty.

Your best bet is to listen to what the expert economists say. 

Job openings highest in four years in June

(Reuters) - Job openings in June were the highest in four years but the pace of hiring slowed from the prior month, government data showed on Tuesday. More.

International air passenger traffic grew 7.4 percent in June compared with the same period in 2011 - @Reuters

Stores report solid gains in July sales

France's biggest bank, BNP Paribas, has reported better-than-expected profits in the three months ending in June following a round of job and spending cuts.