Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Retail Sales Drop

From Reuters:

Retail sales fell 1.2 percent in September to a seasonally adjusted $375.5 billion, the Commerce Department said on Wednesday. It was the sharpest drop since August 2005 and far greater than the 0.7 percent decline economists had expected.

"We have an all-out consumer retrenchment under way," said National City Corp chief economist Richard DeKaser in Cleveland, adding he expected the economy to shrink in coming months.


This shouldn't be a surprise. The market was taking some major hits in that month, the job market is contracting and housing is still a mess. It's time for people to stop spending. Period.

What is interesting is the retail holders ETF:

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Note this ETF was trading in a range for most of 2008. A big reason is the Wal-mart and Target comprise almost 30% of the ETF. Both charts have been doing OK this year. Lowe's and Home Depot have been in a pretty wide trading range for the year as well. I have to wonder how long that trend will be continuing.