{"id":522536,"date":"2010-04-09T12:38:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-09T16:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/henry-blodget-those-sales-numbers-were-horrible-were-going-to-hell-in-a-handbasket-2010-4"},"modified":"2010-04-09T12:38:00","modified_gmt":"2010-04-09T16:38:00","slug":"those-sales-numbers-were-horrible-were-going-to-hell-in-a-handbasket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/522536","title":{"rendered":"Those Sales Numbers Were HORRIBLE, We’re Going To Hell In A Handbasket!"},"content":{"rendered":"

More from the one, the only, Howard Davidowitz…<\/p>\n

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Optimists cheered Thursday’s stronger-than-expected March sales<\/a> at retailers such as Kohl’s, Nordstrom, The Limited and even Gap as further proof of an improving economy and rebounding U.S. consumer. In fact, Thomson Reuters’ Same-Store Sales Index rose 9.1% last month to the highest level in the index’s 10-year history.<\/p>\n

“The numbers were very strong,” admits noted cynic<\/a> Howard Davidowitz of Davidowitz & Associates. “There are some positives” in consumer spending, even after adjusting for the boost many retailers got from Easter being earlier in April this year vs. last.<\/p>\n

But (you knew that was coming, right?<\/em>), Davidowitz believes it’s a “sucker’s rally” in retail stocks and any rebound in consumer spending will be short lived. “We’re in a bad place, heading for a worse place,” he says.<\/p>\n

Regarding today’s chain-store sales data, the veteran analyst notes huge retailers were excluded, most notably Wal-Mart. “When you look at comp retail sales they don’t include the giants, they include some little dinky apparel chain doing a billion-five [in sales] and these analysts are dancing in the street.”<\/p>\n

Furthermore, retailers such as Macy’s and Target warned the big jump in March sales would likely take a bite out of results in April<\/a>, while Abercrombie & Fitch was a notable laggard in March; the Retail SPDR was essentially flat at midday.<\/p>\n

More importantly, Davidowitz says the financial condition of the country is in “dramatically worse shape” than it was a year ago, when he was making dire predictions about America’s future<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With “no real jobs growth…deficits gone mad” and prospects for higher taxes for all Americans, Davidowitz is “exactly in the same place” as a year ago, despite the economy’s apparent revival. “There’s clearly pent up demand – there are needs [and] the consumer is jumping on those needs,” he says. “We’re in a cyclical economy. That doesn’t mean we’re better off.”<\/p>\n

As hinted in the accompanying video, Davidowitz is highly critical of the Obama administration and predicts big political changes for America, as we’ll discuss in more detail in a forthcoming segment.<\/p>\n

Join the conversation about this story »<\/a><\/p>\n

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More from the one, the only, Howard Davidowitz… Optimists cheered Thursday’s stronger-than-expected March sales at retailers such as Kohl’s, Nordstrom, The Limited and even Gap as further proof of an improving economy and rebounding U.S. consumer. In fact, Thomson Reuters’ Same-Store Sales Index rose 9.1% last month to the highest level in the index’s 10-year […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-522536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522536\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}