Auto sales seeing slight slowdown

DETROIT » The raft of gloomy economic news may be starting to hurt U.S. auto sales.

Industry analysts and dealers said last week that sales during the first half of July slowed a bit from the robust pace in June. But they still were expected to be better than July 2011.

Dealers may be wondering if car buyers, who’ve largely ignored sobering economic headlines, are finally getting discouraged. A widely followed reading on consumer confidence has fallen for four straight months. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke acknowledged last week that the economy has weakened.

5 banks shuttered across 4 states

WASHINGTON » Regulators closed two small banks in Georgia on Friday and one each in Florida, Kansas and Illinois, bringing to 38 the number of U.S. bank failures this year.

That’s a slower pace than in 2011; 58 banks had failed by this time last year.

The pace of bank closures has slowed sharply since peaking in 2010 in the wake of the financial crisis. In 2007 just three banks went under. That number jumped to 25 in 2008, after the meltdown, and ballooned to 140 in 2009.