• The equipment leasing and finance industry reports that activity in July was down 17.5% from June's business, but the 2012 trend remains upward, with cumulative new business volume up 14.7% so far, according to the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association’s Monthly Leasing and Finance Index.
• Contractors and other equipment users appear to be in better financial shape. Bills over 30 days past due continued to diminish from month to month and year over year, and charge-offs were very much improved as July's losses were down 43% from 2011.
• Charge-offs decreased to 0.4 percent in July, down from 0.6 percent the previous month, and down by 43% compared with the same period last year.

From the report:

The Equipment Leasing and Finance Association’s (ELFA) Monthly Leasing and Finance Index (MLFI-25), which reports economic activity for the $628 billion equipment finance sector, showed overall new business volume for July was $6.6 billion, up 15.8 percent from volume of $5.7 billion in the same period in 2011. ...