By CountingPips.com
U.S. Consumer Confidence rose more than forecast after two months of declines according to the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index released today. The consumer index, representing responses from 5,000 U.S. households, showed that consumer confidence increased to a 54.1 score this month following a revised 47.4 score in July. The 
increase easily surpassed market forecasts that were expecting consumer confidence to post a 47.9 score for the month.
The other two parts of the survey also saw increases in August. The present situation section of the index increased to 24.9 from 23.3 in July while the expectations index jumped from 63.4 in July to 73.5 this month.
Lynn Franco, the Director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center commented in the report on the increased readings, “Consumer confidence, which had posted back-to-back monthly declines, appears to be back on the mend. The Present Situation Index increased slightly, mainly the result of an improvement in consumers’ assessment of the job market. The Expectations Index improved considerably and is now at its highest level since December 2007 (Index, 75.8). Consumers were more upbeat in their short-term outlook for both the economy and the job market in August, but only slightly more upbeat in their income expectations. And, as long as earnings continue to weigh heavily on consumers’ minds, spending is likely to remain constrained.”
Also released out of the US today was the Standard & Poors/Case-Shiller house price index. The results for the second quarter of 2009 showed that while house prices have still declined at a high rate, the pace of decline has cooled off compared to the previous quarter. The April to June quarter house prices fell by 14.9 percent after a decline of 19.1 percent in the first quarter.
On a monthly basis, both the 10-city composite index and the 20-city composite index increased by 1.4 percent in June after gaining by 0.5 percent in May. On an annual basis, the 10-city composite index fell by an annual 15.1 percent and the 20-city composite index declined by an annual 15.4 percent. The decreases were slightly better than forecasts were expecting and marked the second straight month of improvement in prices after a run of 16 straight months of new record lows.
David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at S & P, commented in the report saying, “The U.S. National Composite rose in the 2nd quarter compared to the 1st quarter of 2009. This is the first time we have seen a positive quarter-over-quarter print in three years. Both the 10-City and 20-City Composites posted monthly increases, as did most of the cities. As seen in both seasonally adjusted and unadjusted data, as well as the charts, there are hints of an upward turn from a bottom. However, some of the hardest hit cities, especially in the Sun Belt, show continued weakness.”
US Dollar mixed in Forex Trading today.
The U.S. dollar has been mixed today in forex trading against the other major currencies since the start of the day at 00:00GMT. The American currency has been trading higher versus the British pound, Canadian dollar and Japanese yen while trading lower versus the euro and Swiss franc. The dollar is trading virtually unchanged against the Australian dollar and New Zealand dollar at 2:36pm ET according to currency data from Oanda.
GBP/USD Chart – The British Pound continued to fall today versus the US dollar in forex trading and decreased to trading under the 1.6350 exchange rate. The GBP/USD had reached a high of 1.7043 on August 5th before retreating lower.
