WASHINGTON – Wall Street finished with mixed results yesterday marking a forgettable August in the United States. The Dow Jones (0.05 percent, 4.99 points) and S&P 500 (0.04 percent, 0.41 points) gained slightly at the end of the day. Meanwhile, the NASDAQ shed more than 0.28 percent (5.94 points) to continue its downward streak.

According to MarketWatch, futures data rallied during the overnight hours as investors jockeyed for position to open trading for the month of September. This movement is expected to give financial markets a serious shot in the arm this morning, but the rest of the day will be dictated by economic releases on expected job data and manufacturing output. The biggest mover will be a release by Automatic Data Processing.

September is historically the worst month for stocks. This is not a guarantee that markets will fall, but rather an indication that a bad August could turn over into a worse September if investors are not keen on America’s economic trajectory.

In other news, according to CNNMoney.com, the so-called “problem bank list” maintained by the FDIC has grown to a staggering 829.

The sheer magnitude of the new list is something this country has not seen since early 1993. Just over two years ago the list stood at 90 banks. Since then the U.S. has gone through a commercial and investment banking freefall.

The largest banks were saved from collapse, but smaller stores were simply forced out of existence by market pressures. In August 2010 the U.S. closed the doors on ten of these “problem banks” – more than 100 American banks have already been closed this year.

Perhaps the biggest news of the day in the United States was actually made last night. President Barack Obama addressed the nation from the Oval Office regarding our finalized troop withdrawal from Iraq. Nearly 50,000 American men and women will still be serving in harm’s way, but the Republic of Iraq will now have sovereign control of all military operations within its borders.

As we look back on all that we lost in the past 7 years, and on how little we gained, it is important to turn this page in U.S. history. The war in Iraq crippled our budget, strangled our economy, and imperiled our troops. None of it was necessary, and none of it did any good for the American people. Nevertheless, with our combat mission now over Americans can breath a bit of a sigh of relief – unless our escalation in Afghanistan simply recreates the same problem in the coming months or years.

Print PDF