Did You Catch the Valentine’s Day Massacre

This past week – while many Americans spent $8.99 on a “made up holiday” greeting card and paid 2-3 times the normal price for flowers and/or candy – a quiet massacre took place.

Flying quietly under the radar on St. Valentine’s day was the death of retail business.

Of course, Friday’s retail numbers got their usual Wall Street pre-scripted spin with alleged gurus saying things like:

“Healthy consumer fundamentals have been supporting personal spending activity.” And, one of my favorites:  “The labor market remained healthy in January and we have seen high levels of consumer sentiment in recent reports, suggesting that there are favorable fundamentals in place for consumer spending.”

LOL!  They left out the Harrruuummmmpphh!  Harruuummmmphhs!

This is typical Wall Street guru-speak to keep the consumer from seeing what’s going on behind the curtain.

As usual, the markets responded with: “Meh!”

Ironically (or NOT) the final nail in America’s retail business will be pounded in from the schizo-phrenic opinions over the coronavirus. (aka Kung Flu)

No one really knows the true number of deaths or those infected by the virus, so for the time being it’s all speculation.

However, you should consider the following:

• What will the economic impact be from shutting down the world’s largest producer/supplier of goods?
• How many companies will go out of business?
• How will the retail business – which has been losing market share to online shopping for decades – compete from here on?
• Will the American public still want to buy items “Made in China”?

Eventually we’ll get the answers to those questions and maybe some real numbers about deaths from China’s 21^st century plague.

In the meantime, the retail sector – who’s been surviving on life support – may have just had their plug pulled.

Yikes!

See our Short and Sweet Tips column in our February newsletter on how to protect your investments without selling them (HERE).