CNNMoney - July 31, 2008: 11:14 AM EDT

Freddie Mac says 30-year fixed rate fell to 6.52% as the price of oil and gasoline fell this week.

By Kenneth Musante, CNNMoney.com staff writer

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Mortgage rates fell slightly this week according to a weekly report released Wednesday, as lower oil prices briefly ease fears of price inflation.

The Primary Mortgage Market Survey from mortgage finance company Freddie Mac said that rates of 30-year fixed-rate mortgages (FRMs) averaged 6.52% for the week ended July 31 with an average 0.7 point discount, down from an average 6.63% last week, and down from an average of 6.68% recorded during the same week last year.

The 15-year FRM averaged 6.07% this week with an average of 0.6 point, down from 6.18% last week, and down from 6.32% last year.

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InformationWeek - August 1, 2008 04:50 PM

The report shows that Microsoft is aware of its own important balancing act as the company strives to maintain its relevance and dominance in the services era.

By J. Nicholas Hoover

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) always paints a picture of the competitive landscape in when it files its annual 10-K report to the Securities and Exchange Commission. In a sign of the times, there are a few new clouds when this year’s report was filed Thursday, including a Web browser’s first appearance as a threat to Windows, Microsoft’s biggest cash cow.”The Windows operating system faces competition from alternative platforms and new devices that may reduce consumer demand for traditional personal computers,” the report warns, noting the possibility that software as a service and mobile devices could decrease the relevance of traditional PC operating systems. “Competitors such as Mozilla offer software that competes with the Internet Explorer Web browsing capabilities of Windows products. User and usage volumes on mobile devices are increasing around the world relative to the PC.”

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CNNMoney - Special Report Eyes on the Fed, Last Updated: August 1, 2008: 12:40 PM EDT

Interest rates likely on hold for a while as worries about economic weakness and inflation leave central bank with few good options.

By Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke talked about the risks posed by both further economic weakness as well as inflation in testimony to Congress last month.

But if the Fed leaves interest rates unchanged on August 5, that will probably be viewed as an admission that it is pretty powerless to do much about either problem right now.

Most market experts believe the weakness in the economy will keep the Fed from raising interest rates Tuesday.

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Real Estate News July 31, 2008, 3:16PM EST

It was a year ago August that the real estate slump turned into a global economic disaster—and it’s still growing

by Prashant Gopal

Happy birthday, credit crisis. It was a year ago August that the world began to suspect the economy was heading into something worse than a slump. Now as another August heaves into view, the credit crisis is a year bigger and—like many 1-year-olds—indiscriminate about where it makes its messes. The real concern is how much bigger it will get.

The crisis has transformed the housing market from weak to downright disastrous. Home prices are tumbling, foreclosures are spiking, and the bottom of the market seems more distant than ever. Gone are the loose lending standards that helped millions of people buy houses they couldn’t afford otherwise. Today, securing a loan can be tough, even for buyers with decent credit.

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CNNMoney - Commentary  The Buzz , Last Updated: August 1, 2008: 10:43 AM EDT

Readers had lots to say about whether the economic slump is almost over or just beginning.

By Paul R. La Monica, CNNMoney.com editor at large

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — More bad news on the economic front today. GM reported a whopping $15.5 billion loss. And the economy lost 51,000 jobs in July.

And even though the number of job losses was lower than expected, the unemployment rate edged up to 5.7%, higher than forecasts.

So is the economy going to get significantly worse over the next few months, or are we actually closer to the end than the beginning of this…slump, downturn, recession or whatever you want to call it?

That’s the question I asked readers in yesterday’s column. And as usual, many of you responded with some interesting perspectives on the economy.

Most of the people disagreed with my take over the past few months….namely that the economy, while certainly in sorry shape, is heading toward an eventual recovery and that conditions are not as bad as some people make them out to be.

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MOTORTREND, July 2008

The Anti-Godzilla: A sportster that’s everything Nissan’s mighty GTR is not

By Frank Markus

This year’s high-performance headlines are all about Nissan’s gigantus GTR, a two-ton nuke lobbed at Newton’s laws of physics. Meanwhile, way below the fold in mouse type we read that Lotus has quietly strengthened its longstanding alliance with fellow Brit, Sir Isaac, by introducing an Elise with Exige S power and 63 fewer pounds worth of “resistance to motion.”

Granted, a lightened Lotus is no newsflash, but there’s quite a bit more to this one than appears at first blush. For one thing, the engine is quite different from the Exige S’s. Both start off as Toyota 2ZZ-GE 1.8-liters, but you’ll note right off that there’s no intercooler and air scoop blocking the rear window of this one. Instead, an entirely new intake manifold by Magnuson incorporates an Eaton M45 Roots-type supercharger that blows a slight boost directly into the intake runners with no detour through a heat-exchanger. This setup shaves 17.6 pounds off the engine’s weight, at a cost of just two horsepower and 12 pound-feet from the Exige S motor’s output (leaving 218 and 153).
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Sillicon Alley Insider - Dan Frommer | August 1, 2008 10:48 AM

Location-based mobile social networking is just getting started in the U.S., and there’s a lot of hype surrounding it. But will that hype turn into dollars?

Research firm ABI Research predicts the nascent industry will turn into a $3.3 billion market worldwide by 2013. Where will that money come from? Location-based mobile advertising “holds a lot of promise,” notes ABI analyst Dominique Bonte, in a statement. But “the current reality” suggests licensing and subscription revenue-sharing — like Loopt’s recent deal with Verizon Wireless — the most likely near-term revenue streams.

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