Consumer Confidence Plunges

Sales pace falls way short of 330K expected

(AP) - Sales of new US homes dropped sharply last month to the slowest pace on record, the latest sign that the economic recovery is fading. The Commerce Department says new home sales fell 12.4% in July from a month earlier to a seasonally adjusted annual sales pace of 276,600. That was the slowest pace on records dating back to 1963. More»

(AP) - The Dow Jones industrials are back above 9,000 today for the first time since the beginning of January. A report of a jump in home sales eased investors' worries about one of the economy's biggest trouble spots. They responded by buying stocks across the market, lifting the major indexes more than 1.5% and sending the Dow up 150 points, past 9,000. More»

Fed figures show $11 trillion was wiped out Americans' net worth last year

(NEWSER) - Last year's stock market and housing slumps wiped out nearly a fifth of the wealth of American families, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Federal Reserve announced yesterday that $11 trillion—more than the output of Britain, Germany and combined—was erased from the net worth of households in 2008, the biggest loss since it started keeping records. More»

ARM holders will see payments soar as their mortgages reset

(NEWSER) - America’s subprime victims may have grudgingly accepted their fate, but there’s a new class of borrowers primed to suffer, BusinessWeek reports. Homeowners who took out ARMs, or adjustable rate mortgages, will soon face skyrocketing payments as their loans reset. About a million people have the mortgages, but only a small number have already fallen due. “It's a ticking time bomb inside your house that you can't get rid of,” one insider said. More»

Housing, oil continue to pummel equities

(NEWSER) - Stocks fell today, rounding out a gloomy week as the familiar themes of housing malaise and energy costs manifested in widespread big losses, MarketWatch reports. The Dow fell 145.99 to close at 12,479.63, the Nasdaq lost 19.91, settling at 2,444.67, and the S&P 500 fell 18.42, closing at 1,375.93. More»