Exceeding (Inflation) Expectations

Retailers report May results above expectations

Costco said same-store sales rose 9 percent, ahead of the 6.9 percent analysts were expecting.

I really hoped to give Costco shareholders a solid 10 percent. I'm just one guy though. There's only so much I can hoard. Sorry!

Wal-Mart was one of the few retailers to specifically mention a benefit from stimulus checks. The world's largest retailer said same-store sales rose 3.9 percent, or 4.4 including fuel sales while analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial predicted a 1.6 percent rise.

Wal-Mart is second on my list, after Costco. I bought a LOT of small rectangular pyrex pans there (and gold toe socks!). I find them perfect as a TV dinner replacement for the freezer (the pans, not the socks ;)). A friend of my girlfriend recently said she bought a lot of pyrex pans for freezing as well (no idea that we'd done it too). I wonder how many others have done it or are planning to do it? I can safely say from personal experience it doesn't happen unless you are planning to permanently change your long-term behavior.

Rival Target Corp., which has a somewhat more upscale clientele, said same-store sales fell 0.7 percent, while analysts expected an 0.2 percent drop.

I dropped by Target a few days ago and walked out empty handed. I balked at the prices. Apparently I'm not alone.

J.C. Penney Inc. said same-store sales fell 4.4 percent, better than the 5.8 percent analysts expected.

J.C. Penney is still in business? Who knew?

This is all great news though.

Stocks rise following jobs report, retailer data

Alfred E. Goldman, chief market strategist at Wachovia Securities, contends the market is entering a stronger period because of investors' ability to not overreact to some bad news such as rising oil prices and a weak dollar and to focus instead on the retail sales and jobless claims numbers.

We wouldn't want to overreact to $120+ oil. That's for sure. Funny that housing and credit didn't make his list. I guess those are the crazy aunts in the attic for a banker. Probably best not to mention them. Further, why focus on the weaker dollar when we can instead focus on the freshly printed "stronger" dollars (tax rebate checks) to help temporarily drive retail sales and temporarily protect the jobless claims numbers?

"What investors are doing is looking beyond the valley to the peaks ahead," he said. "The big picture is that we're in a market that's transitioning from a bear to a bull."

Wachovia? Why weren't they able to see this "bear" coming and profit off their own demise? As a side note, we have just the one valley but we'll be getting multiple peaks? Is that the big picture? There has never been a better time to be in a valley? David Lereah eat your heart out.

Meanwhile, the Fed struggles with wave theory (the idea that there isn't one valley for every peak) too it seems.

Objective collapse theory

In order to keep these theories from violating the principle of the conservation of energy, the mathematics requires that any collapse be incomplete...All of these options seem counterintuitive.

Surely there must be some intuitive solution when you've got the ability to print free money. Maybe they just need to print it faster than the price of energy increases? Would that work?

Complete Collapse: Making Sure "It" Doesn't Happen Here?

It all makes sense now, at least in my twisted world. Too bad I had to change the title slightly though. No, it isn't the first part that's concerning. It is the addition of the question mark.