A Jacksonville hotel missed paying its mortgage despite $5 million in help from the Hyatt chain.

The US Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index which had declined in July, improved moderately in August. The Index now stands at 53.5 (1985=100), up from 51.0 in July. The Present Situation Index decreased to 24.9 from 26.4. The Expectations Index increased to 72.5 from 67.5 last month.

US home prices rose strongly for the third-straight month in June, pushing prices up 3.6% during the second quarter from a year earlier, according to the  Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller home-price indexes, due to the end of the government tax credit for homebuyers. However, the year-to-year increases decelerated in June from May after 16 straight months of improving results, “pointing to a possible deceleration in home price returns.”

The Central Bank reported today that the rate of fall in Irish lending / credit to households and business accelerated in July. Deposits by Irish resident private sector also fell.

State-owned Anglo Irish Bank today announced a stunning loss of €8.2bn loss in H1 2010. This compares with red ink of €4.1bn in the same period last year and the bank has set the ignominious record for an Irish corporate loss in a six-month period.

Eurozone annual inflation is expected to be 1.6% in August 2010 according to a flash estimate issued by Eurostat, the statistics office of the European Union. It was 1.7% in July. Meanwhile, Eurostat also reported that the Eurozone (EA16) seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 10.0% in July 2010, unchanged compared with June. It was 9.6% in July 2009. The EU27 unemployment rate was 9.6% in July 2010, unchanged compared with June. It was 9.1% in July 2009. Compared with July 2009, the jobless rate was down in Austria, Germany and Malta.

Markets news on stocks, currencies and commodities; Eircom to address debt problem of  €3.5bn; German jobless numbers falls for 14th straight month.

Principal news stories from the Irish Independent, Irish Times, Irish Examiner, Financial Times and New York Times.

Principal news stories from the Irish Independent, Irish Times, Irish Examiner, Financial Times and New York Times.

Irish Life & Permanent today reported what it termed a significant improvement in its financial performance for the first half of this year [H1 2010] with a loss of  €10m compared with €51million over the same period in 2009, after  a rebound in the life and pensions business.