Retail Sales Jumped 1.1% Last Month

I’m afraid don’t have much to say about the stock market this week. Things have been pretty quiet around here. Yesterday was the S&P 500’s first day down after a seven-day win streak. Despite being down, the market only pulled back by 0.24%. In other words, volatility continues to be very low. On Monday, the Volatility Index dropped down to 11.50 which was its lowest reading since early 2006.

The good news today was that the government reported that retail sales rose by 1.1% last month. December and January sales were revised higher as well. This is the biggest increase since September and it was more than double the increase economists were expecting. One of the worries is that the higher numbers for February were due to higher gasoline prices, but if we knock out gasoline, retail sales were up 0.6% which isn’t so bad.

Looking towards the stock market, I see that Walgreen ($WAG) is at a new 52-week high. Unfortunately, the stock is still where it was more than 12 years ago. The thing is, the earnings have been quiet strong. The issue is that its P/E Ratio has gotten squeezed. Even when you get a good company, a bad price can ruin your investment.

Posted by on March 13th, 2013 at 10:25 am


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