Yesterday we learned that existing home sales plummeted during the month of July, hitting a fifteen year low. That, on top of high unemployment and falling private sector wages, didn’t bode well for America’s financial outlook.

Today there’s more bad news. The Wall Street Journal reports that durable goods orders (excluding the transportation industry) and new home sales both fell during the month of July. In fact, Jake Tapper of ABC News says the latter figure is the worst in four decades.

Orders for durable goods, products such as autos and appliances designed to last three years or more, rose 0.3% in July from June, largely due to aircraft orders, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. Excluding the volatile transportation sector, orders tumbled 3.8%…

July’s drop in new-home sales—down 12.4% from June, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 276,000 units—underscored the troubles facing the housing sector in the coming months. Many potential purchasers appear to be sitting on the sidelines following the April 30 expiration of a federal tax credit for home buyers. The reluctance also contributed to the sharp drop in existing-home sales reported this week.

The supply of new homes held stable at 210,000 units, but the sharp drop in sales pushed the months of available supply up to 9.1 months from 8 months in June.

We’ll get numbers for new jobless claim filings on Friday. I don’t expect that news will be cheery, either.