The Commerce Department announced that orders for manufactured products rose by 1.3% in July, 50 basis points higher than analysts’ expectations of a 0.8% increase. July’s larger than expected increase was led by a large jump in commercial aircraft orders. This is a positive sign for our economy, however, it leaves many analysts unsure of where our economy is truly situated due to all of the back and forth news over the past few weeks.

Ford Motor Co. (F: 4.57, +0.06 (+1.33%)) announced that its US sales declined 26.5% in August; a figure that shows the US auto slump is not over, as many analysts thought that July’s dismal figures were a bottom to the slump. GM (GM: 11.27, +0.62 (+5.82%)) reported a 20.3% drop in sales from a year ago but improved 31% from July, due to offering all buyers employee pricing on some models. Toyota’s (TM: 90.04, +1.21 (+1.36%)) sales dropped 9.4% and Ford’s sales dropped 3.6% in August. Ford truck sales fell almost 32% last month. More vehicles are planned to be cut from production to help protect the industry against weak economic conditions and continuing consumer credit issues in the second half of 2008. The only major automaker to report an increase in US sales was Nissan.

Employment consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported that the number of summer job cuts reached its highest level since 2002, as employers cut an estimated 377,325 jobs from May through August. This expected job cut is a 30% increase from the first four months of the year. Job cuts usually spike during the summer months as business usually slows, but this summer’s job cuts was also met with high oil prices and limited access to credit, forcing many businesses to lay off more employees. Job cuts in the month of August came in at 88,736, which is smaller than July’s 103,312 job cuts, but is 12% higher than August 2007 numbers. The financial sector has seen some slowing with job cuts, cutting only 2,182 jobs in August down from the monthly average of 14,396 job cuts seen this summer. Analysts expect to see more job cuts as the year progresses as major earnings losses could force more businesses to downsize their workforce

All the mixed news led to today’s mixed market performance.