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3/10/10 Midafternoon Report: Is that a bank rally in your pants or are you just happy to see me?

March 10, 2010 – Comments (0) | RELATED TICKERS: WILC , C

The market is higher today on the strength of a banking sector rally, positive economic news from China, and a likely date tonight with Izabel Goulart (because why else would it be this excited?).  The macro news today has been slightly positive with wholesale inventories down only .2% sequentially in January after being down 1% in December.  While this is the 13th consecutive month of wholesale inventory declines, the second derivative continues to sink like John Meriwether's hedge fund career and a continued decline in the rate of inventory cuts is certinaly a positive sign.  The Commerce Department, led by esteemed Secretary Gary Faye "Reagan" Locke also said that sales were up 1.3% and that dropped the ratio of inventories to sales to a record low of 1.10.  This is an interesting metric as company inventories are now leaner than James Polk's credentials in 1844 or Adam Sandler's Oscar trophy shelf.  If the economy can somehow forget about the 10% unemployment rate, the mounds of money printed by the US government, and Hillary Swank's Academy Awards dress (and really, where did those come from?), and just start to gradually build back some inventories there could be some real recovery, despite what the great Roubini is out saying today about the increasing odds of a double dip recession (ugh).  New unemployment data is also out at the state level with the unemployment rate increasing in 30 states (though more if one includes the states of panic, fear, and pants sh*tting) and decreasing in 9.  One of the states to see declining unemployment was Michigan where the rate dropped from a national high of 14.5% to a still "you're f*cked" rate of 14.3%.  But those three extra people who got hired to man the Burger King drive-through line in Kalamazoo could be a signal (unfortunately that signal is "we need some f*cking jobs").

 

In international news, Greece's economic crisis is more over than Corey Haim (what, too soon?) according to Romano Prodi who is a former Italian Prime Minister, now teaching at a college in Shanghai.  Money McBags has always said if you can't trust an Italian Prime Minister, especially one who has been out of office for years and has had absolutley no real role in anything having to do with the Greek crisis, then you can't trust anyone.  Prodi will continue his "speaking out of my ass" tour by taking part in a roundtable on how global warming has finally ended before chairing a conference on the demise of the internet.  Also fueling the...READ MORE INCLUDING MUST READ ANALYSIS OF WILC...