Late Start Posting, and Tons to get to

Where to start. Well, here's the overseas boxscore:

China's Shanghai Composite: +0.2%
Japan's Nikkei: +0.2%
India's Sensex: +1.5%
Korean Kospi: +1.1%

Retail Sales and Inflation numbers were released this morning. No surprise on the Retail Sales number--at least from feedback we're hearing from followers and analysts. People ARE actually shopping and ARE actually buying. Big bonus for the economy. Not to mention that Labor Day was late this year. Look for the first week of September to push the retail numbers for this month, as well, as parents were still doing back-to-school shopping.

Here's the data:

> A 2.7% month-over-month gain--Wall Street consensus was 1.9%.
> Cash-for-Clunkers was a big hit--car sales rose 10.6% month-over-month.
> Gas stations reported a month-over-month increase of 5.1%--average price per gallon rose 10 cents in the month.
> Take out the increases in autos and gas, and retail sales still rose 0.6%--very impressive.

More later.

Talk to you,

Todd M. Schoenberger, Managing Director
LandColt Trading, Inc.