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This Week's Market Review

It was a slow week on Wall Street as there was little volume and few economic reports to move the market. All three of the major market indices ended the week slightly down after a big jump the previous week. The biggest news of the week was the continued weakness in the housing market. Existing home sales for July were down 4.1% while new home sales were down almost the same at 4.3%. Other news included July durable goods new orders falling a larger than expected 2.4%, mainly due to a drop of 9.6% in the volatile transportation sector. Oil ended the week up slightly at $72.50 per barrel. Going forward, market fundamentals remain positive but it is too early to assume inflation is completely under control. Higher wage gains and rising unit labor costs are still threatening to push inflation up in the months ahead.

The DOW closed the week down, falling 97.42 points to close at 11284.05 The S&P lost 0.6%, dropping 7.21 points, ending the week at 1295.09. The NASDAQ fell 1.1%, shedding 23.66 points, ending the week at 2140.29.