economy

The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index edged up to 59.5 in July, from a revised 57.6 in June that marked a seven-month low in the measure. Economists anticipated the July figure to fall to 56.

The job market has weakened earlier in the year.

As short-term outlook on jobs and income eases to some extent, U.S. consumers' confidence rose somewhat in July, according to a monthly survey released on Tuesday, but confidence levels still continue to be weak.

That was slightly higher than the 425,000 that economists had expected. The 4-week moving average increased 500 to 426,750.

In the year-ago week, there were a seasonally adjusted 472,000 initial jobless claims.

The insured unemployed, those receiving state unemployment checks, fell 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 3.7 million for the week ended June 18th.

Initial jobless claims for the week ended June 25 were 428,000 seasonally adjusted, down from the previous week's unrevised figure of 429,000, the Department of Labor reported today.

That was higher than the 310,000 than economists had expected, and was also 13.5% higher than new home sales in May 2010.

April's sales numbers were revised slightly higher, to an annualized rate of 326,000 from the initially reported 324,000.

The supply of new homes on the market fell 3.5% to 166,000, which represents 6.2 months of supply at the current rate of sales.

The median price for a new home rose 2.6% from April to $222,600, down 3.4% fr

Sales of new homes fell 2.1% in May to a seasonally adjusted, estimated annual rate of 319,000 the Department of Commerce reported today.