Wall Street’s eyes are on the consumer
Sunday, November 9th, 2008As the market gets ready for what will most likely be another jerky week, all eyes are focused on the consumer.
Battered from the credit crisis, housing market slump as well as recession, consumers have been more cautious about their spending. This week will bring more insight on how reserved they’re become.
“We’re just getting wave after wave of bad news,” said Dave Hinnenkamp, CEO at KDV Wealth Management. “And with the way the consumer is getting hit, the retail sales report (Friday) is going to be ugly.”
He said that the short term investors are wanting to see if the automotive industry will receive any help. Ford, Chrysler and GM met with Congressional leaders last week to seek financial assistance.
The meeting took place just after miserable financial reports from Ford and GM. Since auto sales are currently at their weakest point in more then 20 years a report that was released last week showed that any of the Big Three automakers were to fall it would cost the economy as many as 3 million jobs and $60 million in the first year alone. Saturday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, asking the Bush administration to consider expanding the $700 billion bailout to include car companies.