Stocks opened higher and slipped late on little real news and enter the final hour with small losses. Initial claims for unemployment fell below 500,000 last week but the 4-week moving average hit a 9-month high of 486,750. Continuing claims slipped to 4,456,000 as more exhaust their benefits.
The FHFA or Federal Housing Finance Agency reported that home prices fell 1.6% in the 2nd quarter from a year ago, as foreclosures became an increasing percentage of available inventory. Following a record 269,962 seized by lenders in the second quarter as per a report from RealtyTrac dated July 15th, it went to state that foreclosures are expected to exceed 1-million this year. This follows a 3.2% price decline recorded in the first quarter. The report serves to highlight one of the primary drivers of lower real estate prices, foreclosures and distressed sales. The others are record high months of inventory and of course employment, or more specifically lack of, along with excessive levels of debt. All this despite the 30-year mortgage rate hitting an all time low of 4.42% this month as per Freddie Mac who’s records date to 1971.
The Investment Company Institute reports that equity funds recorded a 16th consecutive week that saw withdrawals. In fact the retail, or individual investor, exodus from Wall Street is leading to lower trading profits for the big firms along with trading desk layoffs. Something that is increasingly showing up in there quarterly reports, the natural result of their failure to treat their customers fairly.
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. 
