Prepared at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and based on information collected on or before July 15, 2011. This document summarizes comments received from businesses and other contacts outside the Federal Reserve and is not a commentary on the views of Federal Reserve officials.

Summary

Reports from the twelve Federal Reserve Districts indicated that economic activity continued to grow; however, the pace has moderated in many Districts.

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LATE LOSSES: A late sell-off wiped out the stock market’s gains Thursday as investors worried that a bill headed for a vote in the House of Representatives would fail to break a stalemate over raising the country’s debt limit.

THE CONCERN: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the bill wouldn’t get a single Democratic vote in the Senate, meaning it would fail.

INDEXES: The Dow Jones industrial average fell 62.44 points, or 0.5 percent, to close at 12,240.11. The Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 4.22, or 0.3 percent, to 1,300.67.

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Halliburton announced its Q2 earnings on the 18th of July. ^[1] Revenues for the quarter grew by over 35% year over year and 12.3% sequentially. The growth was primarily driven by higher pricing and utilization of its products and services in the United States where activity in unconventional plays and liquid rich basins is driving demand.

Analysts now expect exploration and production spending in the U.S. Full post…

Success breeds copycats. But in this case, it is a bit extreme. A group of counterfeiters in Kunming near Shanghai China have been selling (possibly/probably) knockoffs of the Apple (AAPL) iPhones and iPads through a fake Apple Store!!!

According to an American who was visiting China, the store looks exactly like the real thing. Full post…