Morning Journal--$16,000,000,000,000 and counting

Economics

This Week’s Data

The International Council of Shopping Centers reported weekly sales of major retailers up 0.5% versus the prior week and up 3.4% versus the comparable period last year; Redbook Research reported month to date retail chain store sales up 1.5% on a year over year basis.

The June Case Shiller home price index came in +0.9%.
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2012/08/case-shiller-house-prices-increased-05.html

And:
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/08/hanson-on-case-shiller/

The August Conference Board’s consumer confidence index was reported at 60.6 versus estimates of 65.9.
http://scottgrannis.blogspot.com/2012/08/consumer-confidence-remains-very-low.html

The August Richmond Fed’s manufacturing index came in at -9 versus forecasts of -10.

Weekly mortgage applications fell 4.3% though purchase applications increased by 1.0%.
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2012/08/mba-mortgage-refinance-activity-declines.html

The second revision of second quarter GDP came in at +1.7, in line while the GDP deflator was reported at +1.6%, in line.