WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve policymakers meeting in early August acknowledged that they might have to take action to ease a growing credit crunch, even as they held out hope for "a return to more normal market conditions" without any intervention.

A cut in one interest rate came 10 days later, and analysts are expecting a broader rate cut when Chairman Ben Bernanke and his Fed colleagues meet in September.

The Fed, however, didn't feel an immediate need to step in at its Aug. 7 meeting. Instead, the Fed left a key interest rate at 5.25 percent, where it has stood for more than a year. Policymakers left rates alone even as they acknowledged that the worsening housing slump, credit problems and turbulence on Wall Street had increased risks to the economy.

———

CONSUMER CONFIDENCE DOWN IN AUGUST

NEW YORK — Consumer confidence weakened in August as Americans focused on turbulent financial markets, a decline in home prices and tighter credit standards.

The New York-based Conference Board said Tuesday its Consumer Confidence Index, declined to 105.0 from a revised reading of 111.9 in July, which was still a six-year high.

Although the index was down, it was slightly stronger than the 104.5 that Wall Street analysts expected.

The survey is closely watched because consumer spending represents two-thirds of the U.S. economy and confidence levels tend to influence spending.

———

U.S. HOME PRICES DROP 3.2 PERCENT

NEW YORK — U.S. home prices fell 3.2 percent in the second quarter, the steepest rate of decline since Standard & Poor's began its nationwide housing index in 1987, the research group said Tuesday.

The decline in home prices around the nation shows no evidence of a market recovery anytime soon, one of the architects of the index said.

MacroMarkets LLC Chief Economist Robert Shiller said the declininar's end but no more cuts are expected, said Rolla P. Huff, the Atlanta-based company's president and chief executive. As part of the plan, EarthLink also said it will repurchase $200 million of its stock.

———

GOOGLE'S CFO WILL RETIRE AT YEAR'S END

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Google Inc. said Tuesday that its chief financial officer will retire by the end of the year, creating the highest-ranking job opening at the Internet search leader since it went public three years ago.

George Reyes, Google's CFO since 2002, will stay on the job while he helps the Mountain View-based company find his successor. The transition is expected to be completed before January.