Home sales also haven't slowed, and home buyers tend to spend on furniture, appliances, carpeting, and linens. The rapid growth in home values also provides equity to consumers, Greenspan said.
Whirlpool Corp, the largest US home-appliance maker, sold more of its energy-efficient Calypso washers in the second quarter, limiting a decline in second-quarter profit.
"I expect the industry to start to turn around, maybe in the fourth quarter," said Peter Kovalski, an analyst at Evergreen Asset Management, which owns Whirlpool shares. "What we're seeing is a bottoming-out here." Viacom Inc, the third-largest media company, had a profit in the second quarter on higher sales at its cable networks.
Even Microsoft Corp, which last week said it would miss profit forecasts for the current quarter because of reduced demand for personal computers, expects the economy to turn a corner.
RSS