Stock Market Today: S&P Up 7 Straight Months, But September Looms

The stock market closed out August with a mellow session that left the major indexes little changed Tuesday. But the S&P 500 still managed to mark its seventh consecutive monthly gain.

There was little new economic data to stir traders. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller US National Index showed that American home prices rocketed 18.6% year-over-year in June – the largest such increase since the index was created in 1987. However, the Conference Board showed consumers were less confident than expected in August, with a reading of 113.8 coming in well below the consensus estimate of 123.0.