Consumer shopping rates are an appropriate indicator of the stability of the current economy.
We'll take a look at how consumers have spent their money at major department stores all over the US. For example, Wal-mart has already announced lower sales performance which the giant has attributed to the federal cuts in food stamp benefits recently. Macy's has also demonstrated lower profits, and expressed its disappointment over its consumer purchase rate in January, blaming ''the unusually harsh winter weather'' for it. On the other hand, the fashion retailer JC Penney has demonstrated a surge in its sales after years of poor indicators that have shown that the major store chain is in a constant struggle. Thanks to its new turnaround business strategy, however, the retailer's stocks have increased to 60% in the last three months, but are still low in comparison to its stock performance from one year ago.
Investors are already impatiently waiting for performance results from major technological companies, such as Cisco, Sony and SodaStream, with the hope that they would perform better than the retail sector. Unfortunately, economic data that show upward movement of stocks has not been present yet, and investors are hoping that better signs of economic progress will show up by the end of the month.
While there's no big economic data that could move stocks drastically, investors will be looking for cues from the broader market this week. Nasdaq has clearly taken a beating while Dow's blue chips stocks have kept at a more reserved conditions. Now with the Fed newly developing stimulus program, investors are hoping to make it big in the current financial market conditions.
Other ''hot'' news from the US is that the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is still pursuing agreement with AstraZeneca, but the two companies have not been able to reach a compromise. If Pfizer is able to finalize the company's purchase this will be the giant's second large business deal after its acquisition of Warner Lambert in 2000 for $112 billion. This will be just another one of the chain of healthcare transactions this year.
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