Pre Market - December 18th 2007

Posted: December 18, 2007 at 10:28 am by Chuck

Housing starts data has been released and dropped 3.7%, building permits dropped 1.5% which is the lowest since June 1993.

Best Buy (BBY) released earnings and they came in better than the analysts had expected, but one needs to remember that the earnings expectations of Best Buy and many other retailers had already been lowered. So the beat on earnings is still lower than what was expected 6 months ago.

Goldman Sachs (GS), one of the few financial firms able to isolate itself from the sub prime crisis (so far) released earnings as well and they were ahead of expectations. Any rise in the financial sectors will likely continue to be sold into strength.

What we also received this morning is the retail sales data for the year so far.. REDBOOK Retail Sales figures for weak ending December 15th show year over year growth of 1.3% (much lower growth than expected). The month to date sales are down 0.6% compared to last month. Recall the commentary from last week where retail sales was discussed and that it was likely that the higher number in November was likely ‘borrowed’ from December. It appears this is what is happening with this updated Redbook sales data.