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Strategies & Market Trends : John Pitera's Market Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jon Koplik who wrote (7823)	5/21/2007 8:34:22 AM
From: Jon Koplik	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 33421

"So much inflation" that : Lowe's uses the word "deflation" in their commentary on latest earnings news. May 21, 2007 7:52 a.m. Lowe's Posts 12% Drop in Net, Cuts Guidance for Full Year By JOSEE ROSE Lowe's Inc.'s fiscal first-quarter net dropped 12%, as the country's second-largest home-improvement retailer missed both internal and Street expectations and cut its fiscal-year earnings guidance. Chairman and Chief Executive Robert A. Niblock said the quarter was hurt by a difficult housing market, "tough comparisons to hurricane rebuilding efforts and significant lumber and plywood price deflation." He also said bad weather in April more than offset solid sales gains in March. Mr. Niblock said Lowe's sales performance should "improve as the year progresses." Last quarter, the company provided investors hope that housing struggles were coming to an end, saying sales trends bottomed out and talked of gradual improvement throughout the year. The Mooresville, N.C., company said net income for its first quarter ended May 4 fell to $739 million, or 48 cents a share, from $841 million, or 53 cents a share, a year earlier. This fell below the company's internal guidance of 49 cents to 51 cents a share. Revenue rose 2.1% to $12.2 billion from $11.9 billion a year ago, while same-store sales fell 6.3% in the quarter. Lowe's had expected a same-store sales decline of 2% to 4% for the quarter. On average, analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected earnings of 49 cents a share and revenue of $12.4 billion. Looking ahead, Lowe's expects second-quarter total sales to increase 6% to 7% and same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, to fall 1% to 3%. The company expects earnings of 62 cents to 64 cents a share. On average, analysts expect earnings of 60 cents a share. Lowe's also expects fiscal-year total sales to increase about 7% while same-store sales are expected to fall 1% to 2%. The company previously expected same-store sales to be flat to up 2% for the year. The company cut its full-year earnings of $1.99 a share to $2.03 a share, from $2.02 to $2.09 a share. Wall Street is expecting earnings of $2.01 a share. The company still expects to open 150 to 160 stores. Last week, rival Home Depot's chief executive said the home-improvement market will remain soft throughout 2007." Home Depot said first-quarter net income dropped 30%. Write to Josee Rose at josee.rose@dowjones.com Copyright © 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

To: Jon Koplik who wrote (7823)	6/1/2007 11:41:32 AM
From: Jon Koplik	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 33421

Latest on "inflation pressures near 2-year low - ECRI" ....................................... Fri Jun 1, 2007 11:10AM EDT US May inflation pressures near 2-year low - ECRI NEW YORK, June 1 (Reuters) - U.S. inflation pressures fell in May close to a two-year low due mainly to disinflationary moves in measures of interest rates and loans, marginally offset by an inflationary move in a measure of vendor performance, a report said on Friday. The Economic Cycle Research Institute's U.S. Future Inflation Gauge (FIG), designed to anticipate cyclical swings in the rate of inflation, fell to 118.2 in May from 118.7 in April, revised upward from 116.6. The previous low was at 117.5 in June 2005. "With the U.S. FIG in a sustained cyclical downtrend, U.S. inflation is not a serious concern at this time," said Lakshman Achuthan, managing director at ECRI. The index's annualized growth rate, which smooths out monthly fluctuations, dropped to minus 3.8 percent in May from minus 3.4 percent in April, revised from negative 5.7. © Reuters 2006. All rights reserved.

To: Jon Koplik who wrote (7823)	9/12/2007 1:19:09 PM
From: Jon Koplik	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 33421

"So much inflation" that : inflation gauge moved to negative 5.1% .................................... ECRI US Inflation Gauge Resumes Fall In August Fri, Sep 7 2007, 13:40 GMT ECRI US Inflation Gauge Resumes Fall In August NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--An index designed to anticipate cyclical turning points in inflation fell off sharply in August and is well below the peak reached in October 2005. At the same time, a smoothed version of the annualized growth rate also was sharply negative in August, moving to a negative reading of 5.1% from an upward-revised negative reading of 1.4% in July. Originally, the July reading was reported as down 1.7%. The Economic Cycle Research Institute said Friday that its Future Inflation Gauge fell to 116.8 in August from an upward-revised 119.5 in July, which was originally reported as 119.3. The gauge was pulled down in August by disinflationary moves in measures of jobs, loans, commodity prices, vendor performance and interest rates. "With the U.S. future inflation gauge at a 27-month low, underlying inflation pressures continue to ebb," said Lakshman Achuthan, managing director at ECRI. Weekly updates of the index are released only to subscribers. -By John McAuley, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-4425; john.mcauley@dowjones.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires September 07, 2007 09:40 ET (13:40 GMT) Copyright 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.