On Friday, the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association (ELFA) issued a press release showing that their monthly confidence index for the equipment finance industry had increased slightly in August. In July, the index was at 57.6 and in August it rose to 58.2.
Even in light of this increase, 73% of bank and finance company executives surveyed for the release said that they still expected their business conditions to remain the same during the next four months. 22% felt their business conditions would improve over the same time period. The survey also indicated that there would be little change in business lending at least over the next four months. To read the release in its entirety, click here.
American International Group Inc (NYSE: AIG) announced today that it had paid back $3.9 billion of the loans issued by U.S. taxpayers to the insurance giant. This was the largest cash repayment made by the company.
Despite this somewhat good economic news, U.S. markets were down today with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 39.21 points to 10,174.41, the S&P 500 losing 4.33 points to close at 1,067.36 and the Nasdaq falling 20.13 points to 2,159.63.
European markets were up on Monday while Asian markets were down.
