Forget the weather, forget AAPL, forget American Idol, forget Greece, forget the Middle East, forget inventories, forget USD strength, forget the SPR, and forget the implicit tax cut we 'received' in Q4 from low gas prices... the average gasoline price in the US was the highest ever for January - is it any wonder that retail sales disappointed? So as we all await the tax-cut extension to pass, perhaps we should remember just how big a chunk of our consumer-spending bias is anchored from the starting point of our energy needs and seasonals will do nothing to help this time, like it did in Q4.
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Highest ever for January (above)...and it only gets worse (seasonally) from here (below)...
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(h/t John Lohman)