Billy Ford

D.R. Horton (DHI): FQ4 EPS of -$0.73 misses by $0.43. Revenue of $1.01B (-34.6%) vs. $1.11B. Backlog of 5,628 homes vs. 5,297 last year. Net sales of 5,008 homes vs. 3,977 last year. (PR)

wow..pretty close DR...what a housing recovery we got going on right now

Oct. Retail Sales: +1.4% vs. +0.9% expected and -2.3% in Sept (revised from -1.5%). Ex-auto +0.2% vs. +0.4% expected and +0.5% prior.

Its not about being a bear..Its about a sorry attempt by the media and our govt to try and spin things that are pointing to a recovery. Im sorry, but if you think a 1.4% growth after a downward revision and sales that are weaker than Oct. 08 are a recovery, then you need to step back away from the kool-aid

Oct. Retail Sales: +1.4% vs. +0.9% expected and -2.3% in Sept (revised from -1.5%). Ex-auto +0.2% vs. +0.4% expected and +0.5% prior.

ok..this is getting ridiculous...nice big bold 1.4%, but then the fine print says that Sept. was adjusted down to -2.3%..and October 09 vs. Oct. 08 was 1.7% lower. Do we all realize that this time last year, America had pretty much shut down..and we are still lower than that????...but hey, futures are still up 8 points...what a joke...

Nov. Reuters/UofM Consumer Sentiment: 66 vs. an expected 71, and sharply down from 70.6 two weeks ago. Expectations dropped as well, to 63.7 from the previous 68.6.

I agree Youngman...The only thing that is up right now is an inflated stock market. The stock market is in no way a reflection of what is really going on in this country. There is a huge disconnect, and they keep pumping it up more and more every day. Each day that goes by with the S&P above 800 solidifies my opinion of this bogus unrealistic smoke and mirror charade.

Now that the first-time homebuyer tax credit is sticking around (and isn't even just for first-time buyers anymore), NAR economist Lawrence Yun expects home prices to rise 15% next year with "the fear factor" no longer at play. Unemployment won't deter people with jobs from making purchase decisions, he says.

What about the 20% increase in foreclosures? I dont hear any talk of that. Factor that into your equation buddy.. Do you really think a measley 6-8K tax credit will be a determining factor to purchase a home. People are either in the market or they are not...and my money says that there are still a ton of people NOT in the market..

ICSC Retail Store Sales: -0.1% W/W, ending six straight weeks of week-on-week gains. +2.9% Y/Y. Shoppers plan to put off holiday shopping until the Friday after Thanksgiving, which ICSC says is now being dubbed "Bargain Friday" instead of "Black Friday," the latter referring to the first day of retailer profitability.

WOW..2.9% better than last year...Last year, at this time the malls were like a ghost town. Some recovery you guys keep lying about..

Charlie Gasparino: Another Crash 'Has to Happen Again'

I like the way he took a stab at the Bush Administration, saying they thought home ownership was a right...That is a liberal view if I have ever heard of one. What network does Gasparino work with? oh yeah CNBC..enough said..you are a fool

Wall Street: Dumb as It Ever Was

I believe the market is being completely manipulated. This administration knows that sentiment is mostly driven by the stock market. Notice how last year when the market was tanking sentiment was at all time lows, but today because the market has unjustifiably been rising for 7-8 months, that sentiment is better. People, are our economy is worse today than it was last year. The administration and they guys pulling the strings are hoping and praying each night that this consumer sentiment will eventually catch up and people will feel comfortable going out and spending money. What will happen when we face reality and know that the fundamentals associated with +10% unemployment will trump sentiment. The people with money, who can influence economies the most see through these charades, and truly realize that we are not recovering fundamentally. The only thing recovering is a manipulated stock market, which in itself is a bubble waiting to burst. Just a few questions that I ask myself. If we are recovering as the market suggests, then why is fed not even considering raising rates? It's simple, because fundamentally nothing is happening. Where is this stimulus going? It certainly isn't being used to fuel any kind of recovery, unless recovery is banks hoarding cash to cover losses from last year and expected losses of the future. People wake up, banks are hoarding cash for a reason, they are expecting MAJOR losses in the future. Other companies are hitting targets because of one thing, cost cutting. What happens when there are no more costs to cut, and we continue to see top line revenues flat? Yes, I am a bear and I believe our country has seen its best years. Manipulation can only work for short periods of time, and it will be only a matter of time before the rest of you wake up and see that we are way worse off than the media and the government play it out to be.

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ -0.05%) says it will cut up to 7% of its workforce in restructuring, for which it will take a Q4 charge of $1.1-1.3B. Expects pre-tax annual cost savings of $1.4-1.7B by 2011, "by reducing layers of management, increasing individual spans of control, and simplifying business structures and processes across the company's global operations." (PR)

come on guys..this is the new normal remember?? apparently that arrogant empty suit in washington thinks so...what a joke...this is why I say anybody believing that we are "recovering" is drinking from the same bucket of kool aid that Obama is mixing up...puke

Mike Shedlock has a hard time seeing why markets went giddy over today's Q3 GDP data: "The government sloshed trillions around and yet disposable income is down, jobs are horrendously weak, and the only reason GDP rose is wasteful government spending, cash-for-clunkers and extremely unaffordable housing tax credits whose effect is soon going to start diminishing."

I dont think we are wallowing in gloom and despair, we just cant stand to see people have this "I told you so" attitude when corporations are barely beating because of cost cutting. All the major companies out there used the sell off in quities last year to revise their numbers to the downside. You can be giddy all you want, but at the end of the day, banks arent lending and small businesses are struggling every day. Unemployment will continue to climb, and people with jobs will continue to pay down debt and live conservatively. Im sorry, but the 2003-2007 years of America are far gone. The holidays this year will be worse than last year. Last year, everyone was in panic mode during the holidays because their portfolios took a 50% hit, but this year everyone has had time to actually feel the impact of the recession. More have been laid off, credit card companies are jacking everyones rate up, and many more reasons for people to have a Christmas that is within whatever means that have. I know in my household, we will have a very thought out, planned budget for Christmas this year, and we still have our jobs. Not to even mention the fact that the housing market is still in the dumps and commercial real estate hasnt had its big crash yet. I just cant get excited about a GDP number that was fueled by money that we as America dont have, and is not being used to implement any sustainable growth. Last thought, accounting, especially on the banks side was real creative this quarter, but that can only go on for so long..The real truth will be out soon enough...

MBA Mortgage Applications: -13.7% vs. -1.8% last week. Refinancings were down 16.8% from the previous week. 30-year fixed mortgage rates increased to 5.07% from 5.02%.

Still waiting on the good news that everyone says this so called "recovery" is based on. If there is no recovery in housing, there will be no "real" recovery anywhere else.
Just a quick thought that a thrid grader could come up with, but I read somewhere the other day that Washington is considering more stimulus. This seems odd since they are the main ones along with the media chanting "recovery" "recovery" "recovery"..Does this seem to be a contradiction to anyone but me? Every day that goes by is more and more evident that our markets are being manipulated..and pushing me one step closer to staying away from this roulette wheel of a stock market

Retail sales fell 2.2% from a year ago, Redbook says, in sharp contrast to the 0.9% gain reported earlier by the ICSC. Still, retailers said a drop in temperatures may have provided the impetus they sought.

Just think, a year ago everyone was in lockdown because Lehman had collapsed and the market was falling off a cliff, and still we are 2% off that...wow..some recovery

Sept. S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index (.pdf): -12.8% and -13.3% for the 10- and 20-city readings, a 1.7% improvement from a month ago. Figures continue to support the stabilization story, "but we do need to be cautious in coming months to assess whether the housing market will weather the expiration of the Federal First-Time Buyer’s Tax Credit in November, anticipated higher unemployment rates and a possible increase in foreclosures."

Really??? This report comes out and the futures rise? This is the most obsurd thing I have ever seen. I would actually love to meet someone that can read the article above and actually think that the housing market is improving. I thought we were supposed to be passed the less bad news is good news stage..As much as the market has risen, we need to see some actual solid news to justify the multiples that we are seeing today...This makes me want to throw up

Customer traffic and sales grew at U.S. chain stores over the past week, ICSC says, with retailers reporting a 0.9% boost in sales vs. a year ago and a 0.1% climb vs. last week. ISCS still expects industry sales to decline 2% in Sept. vs. last year.

Also, what people need to realize is that a year ago (what all these reports usually compare to), the sh&# had already hit the fan, and everyone was beginning to panic. My point, if we are barely above that, then things are still horrible out there, and you can call it what you want, but recovery is not the word I would choose

Consumer Credit Sees Record Plunge: Need Another Indicator?

pompano and shark need to wake up. we are truly in different times and you cant point to some chart in 91 and try to find some correlation with that of today. Consumers will continue to delever and we will never meet the growth expectations that the market has already priced in. I dont know when, but I sure would be putting my seat belt on now.

It is not that we are all doom and gloom...I would love to be optimistic about out country's economy, but enough is enough. Some of us are tired of the Fed and the media playing mind games attempting to make us feel all warm and fuzzy insideh hoping we will go back to our old American ways of buying stuff and then trying to figure out how to pay for it later. This time it is different, and I personally believe that this will make us stronger, but if we dont learn any lessons from our mistakes, we will continue to have these brutal cycles every few years