Business in Brief 08-29-11

The week after Hurricane Irene started with some solid consumer spending news. The Personal Income & Outlays data for July was released in the early AM. Personal spending rose 0.8% in July, higher than the 0.5% gain seen by economists surveyed by Bloomberg. This followed a revision to June’s spending, taking it up to negative 0.1%, from minus 0.2%. Personal income increased 0.3% over June, which was in line with economists’ views. The Core PCE Price Index increased 0.2%, in line with consensus, but up from the 0.1% increase marked in June. This is an inflation gauge, and is up 1.6% year-over-year, hotter than the 1.4% measure taken in June.

Pending Home Sales were reported for the month of July down 1.3%, versus expectations for a 1.0% drop. It’s a shame Washington couldn’t get its act together, or we might have seen some continuation of the 2.4% growth reported the month before.

Monday’s EPS offered reports from Better Online Solutions (Nasdaq: BOSC), Casella Waste Systems (Nasdaq: CWST), China Cord Blood (NYSE: CO), CNinsure (Nasdaq: CISG), Contango Oil & Gas (AMEX: MCF), Culp (NYSE: CFI), Donaldson (NYSE: DCI), Espey Manufacturing & Electronics (AMEX: ESP), Global Education and Technology (Nasdaq: GEDU), LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK), Prospect Capital (Nasdaq: PSEC), SWS Group (NYSE: SWS), Winn Dixie (Nasdaq: WINN) and several others.

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