Weekly Commentary

-- U.S. light crude oil for September delivery rose 52 cents to settle at
$61.38 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. This is not far
from the record closing high of $61.89 hit Tuesday.

-- The weekly jobless claims were lower than expected. Approximately
312,000 Americans filed new claims for unemployment last week, versus
an upwardly revised 313,000 the previous week.

-- The S&P Retail index-RLX slipped 2.2% on Thursday on dismal
earning report from retailers and chain stores.

-- Treasury prices inched lower, raising the yield on the 10-year note
to 4.31% from 4.29% late Wednesday. Treasury prices and yields move
in opposite directions.

-- COMEX Gold rose $1 to $443.70 an ounce. Gold futures rose for the
6th time in the last 7 sessions supported by the weaker U.S. dollar and
potential for a strike by mineworker unions in the South Africa.

-- In currency trading, the dollar fell versus the euro and was barely
higher versus the yen.

-- The 30year Fixed Mortgage averaged 5.82% in the week ended Aug.
4, up from last week's 5.77%. The average for the 15-year mortgage this
week was 5.38%, up from last week's 5.34%. One-year Treasury-indexed
ARMs averaged 4.47% this week, edging up from last week's 4.46%.
Five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid ARMs averaged 5.3%, up slightly
from last week's average 5.27%.

-- The prime interest rate stands at 6.25% and is expected by many
to rise to 6.5% next week, with the Fed seen nudging up its fed funds rate
to 3.5% from 3.25% in what will be its 10th rate hikes over the past 14
months.