Please see below for an excellent financial update from our friends at Pacific Capital Resource Group, Inc.

"The month in brief. Wall Street had a great September, concluding its best quarter in 11 years: last month, the Dow gained 2.3%, the S&P 500 3.6%, and the NASDAQ and Russell 2000 5.6%. The rally was substantiated by quite a few economic indicators, though question marks emerged in the real estate sector. The jobless rate climbed, but consumer spending and retail sales were also up. Gold prices touched $1,000 an ounce. The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady and decided to scale back its emergency auctions.
 
Domestic economic health. The stock market was rallying; would consumer spending also improve? As September closed, we learned that consumer spending rose 1.3% for August, while retail sales were up 2.7% for that month. Certainly the cash-for-clunkers program affected those numbers, but that is still the biggest monthly increase in personal spending in almost eight years (and the fourth straight monthly gain). With auto sales and gasoline purchases factored out, August retail sales were still up 0.6%. Of course, a fraction of those consumers were out of work - the jobless rate reached 9.7% in August.

Unsurprisingly, the Fed left interest rates where they were ... and it announced that it would wind down the scope of its emergency auctions of cash loans and Treasuries from $450 billion in September to $100 billion by January. It also said it would complete its program to buy $1.25 trillion in mortgage securities by March. The Fed's August Beige Book noted stability or improvement in 12 regional economies, with business climates "cautiously positive" in most of those regions.
 
As for consumer confidence, the Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey climbed to 73.5 from August's 65.7 mark."