Today's Indicators

US Consumer Confidence surges above 50 in August; considerably fewer say jobs “hard to get.” Go figure.

In a closely-watched non-indicator reading, the June Case-Shiller index of single-family home purchases in selected cities (chosen to be nationally-representative) rose to a level three times May’s reading. The fact that prime mortgage foreclosures are displacing subprime as a percentage of homes foreclosed upon, and that continued high joblessness may mean that a rising percentage of these new sales may end up in foreclosure, must be taken into consideration when viewing this number.