Someone mentioned the unexpected drop of consumer confidence early in this thread. I feel it's fair to also mention the unexpected rise of retail sales.
http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/12/ ... ail_sales/index.htm Retail sales beat expectations
The Commerce Department said total retail sales edged up 0.3% to $355.5 billion last month. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had anticipated that February sales would drop 0.2%.
From today's Barron's "Up and Down Wall Street" column. Maybe even the author didn't fully understand the meaning of his last sentence.
So, savers' loss is investors' gain as the stock market took flight, fueled largely by the Federal Reserve's policy of keeping short-term rates near zero and buying Treasuries and agency mortgage-backed securities. As mutual-fund flows show, there has been little inflow into domestic equity funds while bond funds have seen a deluge of cash from savers looking a substitute for certificates of deposit paying 1% or so.
In all, the latest Fed Flow of Funds data suggest that, to the extent middle class Americans' finances are improving, it's because their liabilities are being reduced by default. The gains in asset values are being concentrated by those so-called households with the ways and means to own equities.
狗仔卡
发表于 2010-3-12 01:14 PM
发表于 2010-3-12 01:20 PM
