Last week was a light week for economic reports during which positive reports outweighed negative reports.

The positive reports were:

1. Car sales are on fire, GM sales rose 6.4% and Ford sales rose 4.9%, vs expectations of a 0.6% and 1.8% increase, respectively.
2. Unemployment came in at 5.3%, unchanged from last month and in line with expectations.
3. Weekly jobless claims came in at 270k, in line with expectations.
4. Personal income rose 0.4%, better than the 0.3% expected.
5. Average hourly earnings rose 0.2%, in line with expectations.

And the negative reports were:

1. Consumer spending rose 0.2%, below the 0.3% expected rise.
2. The Institute of Supply Management Index fell to 52.7, down from 53.5 in June.
3. Construction spending rose 0.1%, well below the 0.8% expected rise.

Factory orders rose 1.8%, below the 2% expected rise.