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U.S. house prices rose a seasonally adjusted 0.2% in July, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s monthly house price index based on Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac mortgages. June’s gain was revised to a 0.6% gain from a previously reported 0.7% increase. Compared to July 2011, FHFA reports prices are up 3.7%. Earlier, S&P reported the Case-Shiller 20-city composite index rose 1.6% in July, or a 0.4% gain after seasonal adjustment. The Case-Shiller index is constructed differently and also includes three months rather than one months of transactions as the FHFA index does.

Americans keep getting better at paying their credit card bills on time, according to the results of a new Experian study. Researchers reported that the dollar amount of bank credit card accounts over sixty days delinquent fell 21 percent in July 2012 from the same period a year earlier. Auto loan and mortgage delinquencies also dropped significantly over the past year, researchers said.Equifax Chief Economist Amy Crews Cutts told reporters that consumers have been making monthly payments on time, while qualifying for home refinancing deals in larger numbers during the survey period. Equifax’s figures also suggest that more Americans have [...]

Foreign investors bought a net $ 60.2 billion of long-term U.S. securities in July, up sharply from the $ 5.5 billion purchased in the prior month, Treasury Department data released Tuesday showed. This is the largest amount of purchases in a month since January. In the key Treasury sector, overseas investors were net buyers of $ 50 billion in July, up from $ 32.5 billion in June. They purchased $ 4.5 billion of government agency bonds in July after net sales of $ 600 million in June. Foreign investors purchased a net $ 6.4 billion of U.S. equities in the [...]

Inventories at U.S. businesses rose 0.8% in July, compared with a 0.1% increase in June, the Commerce Department said Friday. Sales at businesses climbed 0.9% in July, while the inventory-to-sales ratio decreased to 1.28 from 1.29 in June.

The U.S. trade deficit widened a slight 0.2% in July to $ 42.0 billion, just marginally above the 18-month low gap set June, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. The July trade deficit was below the consensus forecast of Wall Street economists of a deficit of $ 43.5 billion for July and below last month’s initial reading for June. The government revised the deficit in June down to $ 41.9 billion from $ 42.9 billion. Both exports and imports fell in July, with exports falling at a slightly faster pace. The U.S. trade deficit with China widened to a record $ [...]

Job openings at U.S. workplaces decreased to 3.66 million in July from 3.72 million in June, the U.S. Labor Department reported Tuesday. Compared with the prior year, job openings rose 9% — private openings increased 8% to 3.28 million, and government openings rose 20% to 388,000. There were more than 4 million jobs open when the recession began in December 2007. With about 12.79 million unemployed people in July, there were about 3.5 potential job seekers for each opening, up from 3.4 in June. In July of 2011, there were about 13.91 million unemployed people — about 4.1 potential seekers [...]

The U.S. trade deficit grew slightly in July, as exports to Germany, France and other European nations shrank and imports from China soared to a new record. The monthly trade shortfall was $ 42 billion, compared to a downwardly revised estimate of $ 41.9 billion for June. Analysts surveyed before the report had expected a bigger shortfall of around $ 44 billion. The ongoing debt crisis in Europe appeared to be taking a toll on demand, with U.S. exports to the 27 nations of the European Union falling 11.7 percent in July. Exports to Germany were the lowest since February [...]

The government will issue a report on the July trade deficit at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch forecast a 1.3% widening in the deficit to $ 43.5 billion, after the gap narrowed sharply to $ 42.9 billion in June, its lowest level since December 2010.

U.S. consumer credit fell in July for the first time in nearly a year as Americans reduced credit card debt, a worrisome sign for the U.S. economy which has struggled to create jobs. Consumer credit shrank by $ 3.28 billion in July, the Federal Reserve said on Monday. That was well below the $ 9.1 billion advance Wall Street economists had forecast in a Reuters poll. However, in a more positive sign, the Fed revised substantially higher its estimate for credit growth in June. Credit has been expanding almost continuously since mid-2010 as the country recovered from the 2007-2009 recession. [...]

Canada regains all the jobs it lost in July The Canadian economy added 34,300 jobs in August, recouping all 30,400 positions lost in July as it returned to the recent trend of slow net increases in employment, according to Statistics Canada data released on Friday. The gains topped all expectations by analysts surveyed by Reuters, who predicted on average a gain of 10,000, with the highest predictions at 25,000 new jobs. The unemployment rate remained at 7.3 percent, as forecast, because more Canadians looked for work in August. All the job gains were part time, mirroring losses in July. August [...]