Most retailers have been left with little choice other than to cut prices as consumers continue to tighten their belts. One company that is going against the grain, and has the muscle to do so, is Altria (MO).

On Thursday, the company announced that it would be raising prices on several brands of its cigarettes by between $0.71 and $0.81 per pack. The decision was made in response to legislation that will up the federal tax on cigarettes by $0.61 per pack in April. Given the inelastic demand associated with tobacco products, I would expect these price increases to have little to no impact on consumer demand for cigarettes.

The markets are reeling once again and there has been plenty of pain to go around amongst healthcare ETFs.

So far in 2009 the Vanguard Health Care ETF (VHT), PowerShares Dynamic Healthcare Sector Portfolio (PTH) , the PowerShares Dynamic Healthcare Services Portfolio (PTJ) and the iShares Dow Jones U.S. Healthcare Provider Fund (IHF) have seen respective declines of 17.2%, 19.9%, 20.7%, and 23.1%.

The economy may be on the rocks, but business could not be better at Philip Morris International (PM).

Last month the tobacco company reported a 19.2% increase in adjusted diluted EPS as net revenue rose 17.5% on a year-over-year basis. In a time period when many companies have been cutting dividends and slashing forecasts, Philip Morris did just the opposite.

The Chinese government is hoping that a $586 billion stimulus plan will be able to kick-start its economy.

Despite the International Monetary Fund forecasting China’s GDP growth to finish in a healthy range of 8% to 10% in both 2008 and 2009, the Shanghai Composite Index has been punished along with the rest of major global exchanges this year. The index has lost nearly two-thirds of its value since the beginning of the year.

International equities have been among the hardest hit during the market’s recent downturn.

I don’t know that I will be jumping on board anytime soon, but Citigroup (C) notes that at 10.3 times trailing earnings, world-wide stock valuations have tanked to levels worse than that of an 11.4 average for the 1970s.