I read in the paper today that Walmart’s president blamed lower sales on higher gas prices.
In the paper also: Home Depot’s earnings were up 5%, and the company said they would return to reporting same-store sales. The story did NOT mention revenue increases, so I am concluding that the earnings increase was due to some accounting gimmick or land sales, but it is NOT related to increasing sales, that’s for sure.
Also, did everyone catch Barry Ritholtz’s analysis of what is hidden in the lower PPI? PPI dropped because of heavy discounting by the auto makers. It made up for the 40% rise in material input costs. 40% rise in quarterly material input costs! Is that inflationary or what?
This just goes to show: you can’t let yourself be fooled by a headline. Always dig inside the story. Whether it’s median, CPI, PPI, earnings increases: the number often hides an opposite reality.
