The headline data was worse than expected, though mitigated a bit by the upward revisions to April and May, notes Action Economics.
The Washington Post/ABC News consumer comfort index rose two points to -51 in the week ended June 28 from -53 a week earlier.
The Monster Employment Index slipped 1% in June as online job opportunities fell modestly.
San Francisco Fed President Janet Yellen said the central bank should not rush to raise interest rates or remove other accommodative policies as soon as the U.S. economy climbs out of recession. In fact, given prospects for a very slow recovery marked by high unemployment, the Fed's key interest rate could stay near zero for years, Yellen said.
The FDIC on Thursday is expected to propose new guidelines for private-equity investors seeking to buy failed banks, people familiar with the matter said. The issue is a tricky one for the FDIC. It wants to open the door for more types of investors to buy failed banks, reducing the potential cost to the agency of bank collapses. At the same time, it wants to prevent largely unregulated private-equity firms from acting too aggressively. The FDIC's proposal isn't final and could change before it's issued for public comment, people familiar with the matter said.
The euro zone manufacturing economy contracted less than initially thought in June but there was a significant difference among countries. German retail sales rose unexpectedly by 0.4%.
British manufacturing activity fell at its slowest pace in more than a year in June as output rose for the first time in 15 months.
The International Monetary Fund's board of directors plans to approve authorization to issue as much as $150 billion of bonds for the first time as it seeks new sources of funds, an IMF official said. Bloomberg News reported the board is scheduled to vote on the matter today, the official said on condition of anonymity. The bonds are part of a wider effort to seek new funding as the lender helps countries from Iceland to Pakistan combat the global financial crisis.
Bloomberg News reports China's manufacturing expanded for a fourth month as a 4 trillion yuan [$585 billion] stimulus plan and record bank lending revive the world's third-largest economy. The official Purchasing Managers' Index rose to a seasonally adjusted 53.2 in June from 53.1 in May, the Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said in Beijing in an e-mailed statement. A reading above 50 indicates an expansion.
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