First the scoreboard:
Dow: 13,102, -21.6, -0.1%
S&P 500: 1,409, -1.1, -0.0%
NASDAQ: 3,077, +3.9, +0.1%
And now the top stories:
- During the European trading session, European Central Bank president Mario Draghi unexpectedly announced that he would not be appearing at the Kansas City Fed's annual event at Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Draghi cited his workload, which surely is huge ahead of next week's ECB rate meeting.
- The announcement had everyone atwitter. But eventually, people decided it wasn't a very big deal. Art Cashin, UBS Financial Services director of floor operations, didn't think Draghi had much other choice. "You don't go to your best friend's daughter's wedding and upstage him at the event. So that left Draghi in a position to be dry, professorial even purposely boring, lest he steal the spotlight from the host. But, on the other hand, the world has been waiting for weeks to get details behind his assertion that he would "do what is necessary. And it will be enough." A vacuous speech wouldn't do, either."
- In good news, the Case-Shiller home price index unexpectedly climbed 0.5 percent year-over-year in June. This was the first year-over-year increase in the index in over two years. Robert Shiller told Yahoo's Aaron Task that housing may be bottoming. "We seem to have upward momentum and we have confirmatory evidence and like NAHB housing confidence index," said Shiller. But he also warned that there were also plenty of clouds on the horizon.
- Consumer confidence fell to 60.6 in August from 65.4 in July. Economists were expecting a reading of 65.8. "Consumers were more apprehensive about business and employment prospects, but more optimistic about their financial prospects despite rising inflation expectations," said Lynn Franco of The Conference Board.
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