Stocks enter the final hour mixed despite some good news. The Chicago Fed National Activity Index jumped .7 to 0 its historical average in July, which indicates that the economy continues to expand. The 3-month moving average slipped .05 to -.17, generally a reading of -.7 or worse indicates recession. So really this report is mixed indicating economic expansion but at a slightly slower pace than June.
After a couple of slow weeks the FDIC closed 8 banks Friday, 4 in California, 1 in Illinois, 1 in Virginia and 2 in Florida at a cost to the already overdrawn FDIC Deposit Insurance Fund of 454.5 million. Shore Bank, Chicago, IL made up the lions share at 367.7 million. This brings the 2010 total of failed banks to 118.
Despite a parade of “green shoots” economic recovery stories that asserted the recession ended earlier this year following positive GDP figures. The NBER, the folks officially in charge of dating when recessions begin and end, never officially declared that the recession was in fact over. Recent revisions to 2nd quarter GDP and additional data are likely to produce a final figure in the range of just 1%, a far cry for the originally reported +2.4% figure. Worse 3rd quarter GDP is so far tracking negative .5 to -1%, despite “official” forecasts of 2.5 to 3.5%, though these have been lowered somewhat of late.
Tomorrow brings the July Existing Home Sales data, expectations are for it to be a shocker with inventory setting a new record high and perhaps breaking the 12-months mark.
Hi and welcome to The Profit Motive, I’m your host Caleb Lawrence. Once upon a time in America the media acted as the watchdog of the corporations and the state. In the modern era it’s all about ratings and profits, opinion has been substituted for news and frequently is presented as fact. 
