Last week, negative developments far outpaced those considered to be positive. As a result, stocks declined in value.

Here is a succinct summation of last week’s events:

Positives:

1) Thru all the political noise, yields with maturities ranging from 2′s to 30′s are all lower
2) June Pending Home Sales unexpectedly rise 2.4%
3) Initial Jobless Claims fall a touch below 400k for 1st time in 16 weeks
4) Conference Board consumer confidence up a touch but period ended 2 weeks ago before political noise got really loud
5) India steps up fight against inflation with 50 bps rate hike

Negatives:

1) DC politicians get us into this mess and have little courage to get us out
2) Overnight LIBOR, repo and t-bill yields all spike
3) Q2 GDP disappoints with only 1.3% growth off a lower than expected base from Q1, revised to just .4% gain
4) Chicago PMI falls a touch, follows weak NY, Philly, Dallas and Richmond mfr’g surveys
5) Final UoM confirms preliminary report that has confidence at lowest since March ’09
6) MBA said purchase apps fall to lowest since Feb
7) S&P/Case-Shiller home price index remains near multi yr low
8) Durable goods orders disappoint-non defense cap goods ex aircraft falling .4%
9) India hikes rates more than expected, are they killing growth?