Do you ever feel like you just want to pick a fight? I do sometimes, but the fight I always seem to pick is with the breathless media, the media that fails to do its job, the media that cannot seem to get past using inflammatory negative descriptors when reporting data. Check this out.
The sharp rise in sentiment reported by the Conference Board on Tuesday offered hope for a pick-up in consumer spending after an anemic performance in November.
Consumer spending has “picked up” for five straight months, with huge spikes in July and September. As to November, the spending uptick missed “expectations,” but it did not miss in dollars spent. Online sales surged to record levels. Black Friday and Cyber Monday (in November) boomed to record levels and the overall Christmas shopping “season” set an all-time high in dollars spent. The Christmas shopping season includes November. My point is that November sales were hardly “anemic,” but that is the descriptor used in the story. I know, I know, this is a fight I cannot win, but still, no matter how quixotic, I will fight against this assault on perception, this attack on the confidence of consumers everywhere.
Speaking of Christmas, I hope Santa brought everyone what he or she wanted. For me, well, I don’t really expect much since I don’t give out gifts at this time of the year, but sometimes, low expectations can be a gift unto themselves. As I have mentioned before, I am a gambler at heart, and I used to play tournament poker online for money, but since the crackdown, playing for points is my only option. Well, thank you politicians, “points” just might be a thing of the past. I just might be able to get back to winning some dough online …
The Obama administration cleared the way for U.S. states to legalize Internet poker and certain other online betting in a switch that may help them reap billions in tax revenue and spur web-based gambling.
As to the market, well, this week is a low-volume cast off, really. The first week in January, however, could be quite different, and the weeks after that could be quite different as well. Me thinks investors will be coming back to start their game plans for 2012. I can’t imagine what those plans could be, but I know investors are anxious to make some of their own dough after the flat-line performance of the S&P in 2011. As well, if the news out of Europe is not bad, or possibly even good, expect investors to react positively. Even though the news below failed to inspire traders today, this kind of news, if it continues, will pave the road to more confidence in the ability of Europe to get its act together on the debt issue. Investors like confidence.
Italy’s short-term debt costs halved at auction Wednesday as a new package of budget austerity and an injection of cheap long-term money from the European Central Bank won Rome some respite in thin year-end markets. Borrowing costs declined at an Italian bond auction earlier with Italy selling 9 billion euros of six-month Treasury bills at a rate of 3.251%, down from 6.504% at the last auction.
And so, I will leave the fight against the poor word choice of the breathless media, put aside my wish for a return to playing poker for money online, and I am left with Italy’s bond sales pointing to a bit of confidence in the country’s ability to stem its fiscal problems. Not bad …
Trade in the day – Invest in your life …
