Retail Bulls Get Slaughtered

The disappointments of the bulls in the retail sector over the past year got another disappointment with weak sales during the holiday season. As I recently pointed out to my Dohmen Capital clients, Wall Street analysts were bullish on retail late last year, predicting that Christmas sales would be strong. The election results produced further optimism, saying that the prospects of the new President will encourage consumers to spend more. If the world were only that simple! To spend more, people need more income, which has been declining for several decades. They need jobs, which right now is not happening except in the phony statistics out of Washington. And then they need motivation to buy. Prices of clothing are still declining, the closets of consumers are full, and the prospects of even lower prices don’t put any urgency into buying more. Read more at Forbes.