Services: Another report yesterday confirmed the sluggishness in the service sector (as we have seen from retailing).

The performance of services index fell for the third month in a row, down 2.2 points to 46.6 from June. (A figure below 50 indicates the industry is contracting.)

The survey, from the Commonwealth Bank and Australian Industry Group, showed that personal and recreational services experienced a significant decline following a strong June result, while retail trade continued its poor performance.

Finance and insurance services was the only sub-sector to expand in July.

The sales sub-index contracted 5.0 points in the month, while the deliveries sub-index fell 2.9 points.

Employment across services remained in positive territory in July at 50.4 points.

Tasmania was the only state to record an expansion in services activity.

Home prices: And Australia's home price growth slowed in the June quarter, but not by as much as forecast.

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures for the three months to June, showed the weighted average capital cities house prices rose 3.1%, following a revised 4.8% rise in the March quarter.

In the year to June, prices rose 18.4%, from a 20% annual rate in the year to March.

Analysts had forecast home prices to rise 2% in the June quarter and 17.2% in the year to June.

Home prices in Sydney and Melbourne rose 20% in the year to June; but that's already slowing, as figures from RP Data/Rismark last Friday already confirm, and which also are in the ABA data.

House prices in Sydney increased 21.4% in the year to June, according to the ABS, unchanged from the year to March.

In Melbourne, house prices were up 24.3% in the year to June, down from the hectic 27% growth in the year to March.

Car sales: July's car sales did slow from the record pace in June, according to industry figures released yesterday, but were still higher than the same month in 2009.

Figures from the Federated Chamber of Automotive Industries show new vehicle sales, including passenger cars, SUVs and commercial vehicles, was 82,376 units in July, up 9.3%, or 7,043 vehicles, on July 2009.

July sales were down more than 26,000 from the record 108,722 vehicles sold in June when lots of car retailers and manufacturers ran end of financial year specials.

FCAI chief executive Andrew McKellar said in a statement that it was a "very solid result" for July as the start of the new financial year usually resulted in slower sales.

"These figures provide further evidence that sales to private customers continue to increase strongly - recording a 20% rise compared to this time last year," Mr McKellar said.

He said the SUV segment of the market was the strongest performer during July, with an increase of 29%.

This was followed by light commercials up 13.7%, and then passenger cars with a 3.2% increase.

Toyota was the top selling manufacturer in July with 17,250 sales, followed by Holden with 10,648, then Ford with 7,375 units.

The figures show Mazda, with 7,374 sales, missed out on being in the top three by just one unit.

Year-to-date, 613,544 vehicles have been sold, an increase of 15.6% compared to the same period in 2009.

In the six months to June, sales for the year were 16.7% ahead of the same period of 2009.