Thursday, November 13, 2008

Initial Unemployment Claims at 2001 levels


Source: calculatedrisk.blogspot.com

The Department of Labor reports that...
In the week ending Nov. 8, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 516,000, an increase of 32,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 484,000. The 4-week moving average was 491,000, an increase of 13,250 from the previous week's revised average of 477,750.


With these levels of unemployment I would not think of touching any stock related to consumer spending. Even if your thinking that companies who target the more affluent will be fine, just be careful. Nothing is recession proof. TRLG...No Thanks.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Not even if certain retailers are trading under their real estate value, such as Target? William Ackman is determined to have Target spin-off their land into a separate entity. You can see his presentation here (http://www.valueinvestingcongress.com/landing/p09/pershing/target.php). The market may also be pricing a much more severe consumer environment…