The Bureau of Economic Analysis released their Personal Income and Outlays report today. In the report, they indicated that consumer spending had increased by .4 percent in July, which was more than analysts expected. The report also notes a .2 percent increase in both personal income and personal disposable income, indicating that there might be some continued improvement in consumer spending in August as well. You can visit the BEA website for the full report.
Unfortunately, this increase in spending was not enough to erase the doubts about economic recovery that news during the past few weeks has fostered, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 140.92 points to 10,009.73. The Nasdaq fell 33.66 points to 2,119.97 and the S&P 500 dropped 15.67 points to 1,048.92.
Not helping matters was a speech given by President Barack Obama today during which he mentioned, “pushing the economy forward” but gave no detailed information about how he and his administration plan to do so, though he did outline some broad plans. To watch the speech or read excerpts, visit the WhiteHouse.gov site.
European markets were mixed on Monday while Asian markets were up.
Stocks in the news: Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ: RIMM), NRG Energy Inc (NYSE: NRG), Clearwire Corp (NASDAQ: CLWR), Sprint Nextel Corp (NYSE: S).
