Consumers Remain Feeble
Let me share a secret: I wrote the following consumer analysis before the May government retail sales release. It's not that I am against government data -- after all, have you ever met someone who works at the Bureau of Labor Statisics or Census Bureau? In fact, I've found past numbers quite helpful in putting together this piece on the consumer.
Rather, my aim here -- after being inundated with information in the past couple of weeks -- was to think about the consumer minus the headline of the day and assorted stock reactions. There is no denying my negativity on the consumer, as it's been revealed through specific sector calls in recent months. (To recap individual calls, I'm long Dollar General (DG), long Wal-Mart (WMT) post-first-quarter earnings, and I recommend avoiding Lululemon (LULU) into earnings.) So I wanted to do a sanity check of sorts in order to see if that bearishness on retail stocks was warranted. Sadly, it is....534 more words left in this article. To read them, just click below and try Real Money FREE for 14 days.
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