Final Thoughts For The Week

So, it appears we've dodged a bullet. The Fed gets tremendous accolades for engineering a soft landing. The Fed is indeed omnipotent. Today on the tube I see a long time bear who has thrown in the towel. It's hard to argue with the earnings being reported was his parting comments. A few of my favorite bloggers have recently attempted, in vain, to keep people grounded.

Well, I'm *hoping* the bullish perspective is right but I don't invest based on hope. As I've said before, I learned long ago not to attach too much weighting on what others tell me. Some call that cynical. Others negative. I generally find it to be more about finding the truth. Truth they likely don't have. How often have you been told that something couldn't be done only to find out it surely is possible? Or that something is surely a truism, only to find out it isn't? I see their data. Target, Wal-mart and other retail stocks at 52 week highs and good retail sales still being reported. Now, lets look at my data. This is how I measure retail stocks. Unfortunately, my data looks a little different than their data. This chart is from February 2003, the start of this bull market, until today. Who is on the right side of the trade?

I guess the next few months will give us some clarity. At least some short term clarity. In the mean time, be sure to go out and spend some of that hard earned money to support the global economy.