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Strategies & Market Trends : Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: CalculatedRisk who wrote (26226)	3/23/2005 8:50:58 PM
From: mishedlo	Respond to of 116555

GM Says May Phase Out One of Its Brands GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz did not specify which car might be dropped but described Buick and Pontiac as "damaged brands" due to lack of investment over the years, and told a Morgan Stanley automotive conference in New York that GM is working to correct that with an array of new vehicles coming to market. money.excite.com

To: CalculatedRisk who wrote (26226)	3/24/2005 12:56:36 AM
From: mishedlo	Respond to of 116555

Is the cyclical bull over? globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Mish

To: CalculatedRisk who wrote (26226)	3/24/2005 1:49:59 AM
From: mishedlo	Respond to of 116555

Japan Feb dept store sales down 7.0 pct year-on-year; 11th drop in 12 months [Japanese rebound - Yeah right - Yiwu sure is doing a piss poor job teaching them how to shop. Perhaps she just gave up ggg - Mish] Thursday, March 24, 2005 6:04:15 AM afxpress.com TOKYO (AFX) - Department store sales fell 7.0 pct in February from a year earlier to 522.7 bln yen, the 11th decline in 12 months, the Japan Department Stores Association said On an annualized basis, department store sales have dropped for seven straight years amid Japan's worst economic problems in more than a half century. In 2004, sales fell 2.8 pct to 7.88 trln yen, dropping below 8 trln yen for the first time since 1988 A half hour earlier, another industry association reported that supermarket stores' sales last month fell 7.1 pct from a year earlier, the 15th decline in 16 months Later this month the government will issue data for overall sales at the retail and wholesale levels in February Economists and investors will be studying all these reports for evidence of whether consumer spending is picking up and thus preventing the economy from slipping back into recession as export growth stalls [Earth to economists... Japan IS back in recesion AND there is no evidence of a pickup either - Mish] Yesterday, the government reported that Japan's merchandise trade surplus in February plunged 21.7 pct from a year earlier, as exports rose just 1.7 pct while imports ballooned by 11.3 pct [Watch what happens when the world goes into a recession. It will not be pretty and the YEN will NOT be a buy. Mish] That stirred concern over whether an expected pickup in domestic demand -- the result of strong job creation and rising remuneration -- will compensate for a prolonged decline in external demand, long the major driver of economic growth. Consumer spending underpins 60 pct of the economy, and is now being counted on more than ever to keep the economy growing as export growth stalls and industrial output flattens out Yet the government and many private-sector economists say department-store sales should no longer be viewed as a reliable gauge of the trend in consumer spending. Recently the government removed department store sales as one of the components making up the index of current economic conditions. As a result of structural changes in the retail sector, department store sales were replaced by supermarket and convenience store sales in that index, in an effort to show more accurately whether overall economic activity is increasing or not Sluggish consumer spending amid Japan's most severe economic downturn in five decades is primarily to blame for the decline in department store sales over the past 13 years. But so too is the opening of large shopping malls, often filled with a new breed of specialty and discount stores which have lured away customers Sales fell last month in seven of the eight product categories, the department stores association said Revenue rose -- by 1.8 pct from a year earlier -- from services, a tiny category accounting for only 0.9 pct of total sales. Sales of clothes -- the largest product category, accounting for 36.1 pct of the total -- fell 11.5 pct Sales of food -- the second-largest category, at 24.9 pct of the total -- fell 4.4 pct Sales of miscellaneous goods, including furniture and home appliances -- the third-largest category, at 15.2 pct of the total -- fell 2.4 pct. Sales of personal belongings, including handbags, jewelry and accessories -- the fourth-largest category, accounting for 12.2 pct of total revenue -- fell by 3.0 pct And sales of household products fell, as well sales at store restaurants and cafeterias, the industry association data show