8/14/12 1:11 PM – Decent Economic News

Retail sales, which had fallen for four straight months jumped up last month. Business inventories dropped sharply which hopefully means sales were stronger than expected.

Yesterday, I mentioned how sluggish August has been. Well, yesterday was the lowest trading volume of the year. We are making some progress in stock prices during this period. The S&P 500 stock index is up 2% for August and 4% in the last month. So, while it seems sleepy, we are seeing good gains in stocks.