Hope Is Springing Eternal

It’s probably not any solace to those that saw their retirement funds get clobbered last week but so far overseas markets are mixed and Dow futures are now up after being sharply negative earlier in the weekend.  This may not hold throughout the day and let’s face it the last trading day saw a 1000 point swing on the Dow so chances are the volatility will continue.

On the economic side of things it was shocking today to see that gas has fallen almost 50 cents a gallon between my last two tanks.  It’s unprecedented and just makes no sense given what everyone was saying just a few months ago about higher oil prices being here to stay.  With demand so far down will consumers flock back to gas guzzlers at the highly discounted prices or have we learned our lesson?

The larger question this week will be whether or not we have a return to more normal economic activity or whether or not the new norm is what we’ve grown accustomed to in the past few weeks.  One retailer indicated today their business is down 30% over year ago levels and more than 25% in the last two weeks.  We haven’t seen a drop yet but most everyone else we talk to is reporting slow sales.