The puzzling performance of the economy at midsummer has experts wondering which sector will be the next to disappoint.

A huge jump in the price of motor fuel has been blamed by most analysts for recent shortfalls, which have seen debt-laden consumers clinging tightly to their wallets in stores and auto dealerships.

Compounding the concerns, there has been little wiggle room in the job market, where July showed the formation of a mere 32,000 new positions, far below expectations.

One bastion of the economy that appears untouched is home construction, where the boom has continued for more than a decade. Hammers are pounding at near-record rates while Americans line up at sales centers to view the latest luxury dwellings.

Get ready for Tuesday’s report on July housing starts to show a sizable bounce, to about 1.9 million units annually from 1.8 million a month earlier. That’s the prediction of economist Lynn Reaser, who says home builders remain optimistic.

“The market for entry-level and midlevel housing remains quite strong, although some houses in the very high-priced brackets are staying on the market longer,” said Reaser, of Banc of America Capital Markets in St. Louis.

She notes that mortgage rates ratcheted lower by about a quarter of a percentage point last month, to bring long-term rates back to about 6 percent. That helped spur activity.

Although the housing industry has slipped from a peak since early spring, when construction briefly topped the 2 million-unit mark, Reaser says no downturn is in sight.

“If the Federal Reserve continues to boost interest rates, it could slow housing somewhat, but it will remain at historically high levels,” she said.

When members of the Fed boosted short-term interest rates by a quarter-point last week, to 1.5 percent, there was a remarkable silence about inflation. The central bankers were fulsome in praise of economic expansion, blaming higher energy prices for the recent lull.

Economist Robert Dederick says members of the Fed are in no mood to be complacent about inflation and will carefully monitor Tuesday’s July consumer price index for signs that price pressures are kicking up.

Dederick, of RGD Economics, is looking for a gain of 0.2 percent, or 0.1 percent when food and energy are excluded.

“The Fed is growing more concerned because inflation has swung around in the last few months. It is running at a rate between 2 percent and 21/2 percent, which is near the top end of the range that the central bank can tolerate,” he said.

Unless economic numbers weaken noticeably, Dederick said, members of the Fed will continue to tighten short-term rates, moving again at their next meeting Sept. 21.

With the days of summer rapidly slipping away, the nation’s retailers are pinning their hopes on back-to-school sales to salvage a season beset by the blahs.

A key measure of activity, leading economic indicators for July, rolls out Thursday, and is supposed to be able to foretell what will happen between now and early spring.

The index saw a desultory drop of 0.2 percent in June, following a leap of 0.5 percent in May. The indicators roared ahead in the opening months of 2004 and as of the latest reading were up 3.7 percent year over year.

The stock market has been backpedaling in recent days, as oil above $46 a barrel caused investors to lose their nerve. Adding to the gloom: less-than-stellar profit reports and forecasts from the high-tech sector.

The market’s problems are intensified because the last half of August typically sees traders heading for the lakeshore or mountains, abandoning Wall Street until Labor Day. Analysts are hoping the onset of the dog days won’t prove to be an invitation for the bears to prowl and inflict still more wounds.