Financial talk again! Let's see what our expert - Pitguru Frank LaMantia - wants to remind us to pay attention to for our investment!


Retail sales came in higher for the month of October, showing a 1.2% increase. It was expected to be around half of what was announced today. Auto sales were the major contributor to the inflated number. If the auto number was taken out, sales rose 0.4%. The good news is auto sales have risen for four straight months. Growth is obviously a positive thing but when it comes to GDP the numbers are 50% lower than is needed to support growth. The past 2 quarters have averaged out to about 1.85% which 3.6% or higher is needed for the consumer, the economy, and the markets to be stable or show growth and the most important thing is an increase in employment. A warm October was blamed for a lack of traffic to big retailers and malls this past month. Hardware showed an increase of 1.9% while gas also grew by 0.9% showing an increase of prices at gas stations.

Greenspan mentioned that the more countries go into a deficit, the more chance there is for a bond crisis. This trader has speculated about this for the past 2 years and believes this to be true as well. However, shouldn’t Greenspan stay retired and stop talking to the public? This certainly undermines Bernanke and a conversation should be held about this. The consumer does not need more fuel added to the fire. He might be right but let the current Board do their job.

Inflation is a concern and could be creeping into the markets unnoticed. Remember not everything in economics can be monitored the same way from year to year. Gas and food prices seem to be rising and prices at large retailers also seem to be on an upward move. Hopefully, the Fed addresses this shortly with a .25 of a point rise in interest rates. China needs to be monitored more closely as well this week as concerns about inflation has already hit their markets.

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*chart courtesy Gecko Software’s Track n’ Trade Pro
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