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Consumer confidence down; home prices up
ECONOMY
Consumer confidence dims; home prices rise
Job worries drove U.S. consumer confidence in July to its lowest reading since February, according to data released Tuesday. One in six people said they were expecting lower income in th... e next six months, underscoring the precarious state of the economic recovery.
The Conference Board, a New York-based business and economics research group, said its index of consumer attitudes fell to 50.4 points in July from an upwardly revised 54.3 in June.
Home prices rose more than expected in May, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index of prices in 20 U.S. cities, helped by robust spring sales and the last purchases that qualified for a federal tax credit. But the market may not sustain its rebound as long as unemployment hovers near 10 percent, and a record stockpile of foreclosed houses may also stall a recovery.
The S&P/Case-Shiller index rose 0.5 percent in May, seasonally adjusted, after an upwardly revised 0.6 percent gain in April. It was up 4.6 percent from May of last year, S&P said.
Still, single-family house prices remain 29.1 percent below their peak four years ago. Seven out of the 20 U.S. cities in the index saw home prices decline.
-- Reuters
INTERNET
Google to power Yahoo Japan's searches
Yahoo Japan will use Google technology to run its search engine and search ad delivery system, after a similar deal in the United States was derailed by regulators concerned about a monopoly.
Google and Yahoo Japan, which runs separately from its California-based namesake as a subsidiary of SoftBank, a Japanese Internet and mobile phone provider, said enough independence would be maintained to keep the market competitive.
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