Daily FNArena News

The Westpac-Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment reading for July is still strong, supporting the bank’s view the next move in interest rates will be up.

The Dow fell 148 points last night as bullish faith in the American consumer took a hit and S&P and Moody’s began moving in on the sub-prime mortgage market.

Housing finance recorded a smaller than expected increase in May but economist agree further increases are likely in coming months as demographic changes mean the market is under-supplied.

The Australian dollar is at long-term highs against the US dollar but according to ANZ Bank conditions remain supportive and further gains appear likely.

The overall trend in NAB’s business confidence survey is still to the upside, but there are disparities across sectors such as mining and retail.

Mugabe has rounded up and arrested 1300 shopkeepers. Clearly they are the source of Zimbabwe’s inflation problem.

UBS economists have taken a sample set of the figures that will make up the second quarter CPI, and it doesn’t look that promising.

Westpac suggests rather than overshooting the Australian dollar is likely to strengthen further against the US dollar as fundamentals remain supportive.

June Job Ads data was stronger than expected, leading ANZ Bank to suggest unemployment could fall below 4.0% by the end of the year.

Australian has enjoyed strong growth in employment since the start of 2006 and Westpac expects a continuation of this trend.