How's The Consumer?

You be the judge. Above are the price charts (You many click on the charts for a larger view), courtesy of Prophet.net for

@Toll Brothers - a national home builder (As a shareholder would you be happy to know Robert Toll, the CEO, sold $230 million dollars of stock when it was near $60? He was on CNBC many times last summer saying how bullish he was on his company. A year later the stock is down 60% and he made a killing selling near the top.)

@Brunswick - a boat builder

@Coach - a luxury hand bag and accessory maker

@Polaris Industries - a motorcycle, all terrain vehicle and snow mobile maker

@Home Depot - the largest home improvement retailer. (As a shareholder would you be happy that the Home Depot CEO made $22 million dollars last year? What did you get for that? A stock making multi-year lows.)

@Apple Computer - a consumer centric technology company

At a time when the financial media is generally telling you the economy is fantastic, does it look that way? These stocks are in crisis. Will they recover? Likely at some point we will see a rally of some sorts. But don't expect them going to new highs any time soon. ie, Possibly years before that happens. Remember, stock prices are discounting mechanisms. They are telling you what the economy is going to look like in six months to a year.

This ties into my next post for Friday. "The Illusion Of Wealth: Never Has The Prosperity Of So Many Been Reliant On So Few"