The retail sector is all over the news. Unfortunately, the headlines are almost all negative. As unemployment risks remain high, consumers refuse to spend.

It has been a tough week if you have anything to do with the world of retail. Just about every company that opened its books to the Street this week got punished for the act.

The list of “disappointing” reports is getting longer by the day.

Lowes (NYSE:LOW) kicked off the week with scary-low figures. Home Depot (NYSE:HD) beat the Street but still got punished after a slew of less-than-stellar economic reports.

Outside of the home-centric sector, shares of Liz Claiborne (NYSE:LIZ) plummeted on Monday after the Standard and Poor’s cut its rating on the unprofitable retailer to B, a two-notch downgrade. The company’s rating now stands five levels below investment grade.

High-end retailer Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF) is also deep in negative

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How's that for a headline, both statements valid.  Besides the huge short interest in Sears Holdings (NYSE:SHLD) shares, there's an exclusive LL Cool J “collection of casualwear for juniors, young men’s, girls and boys” coming right in time for back to school.  Going back to Cali?  Going back to School?  I don't think so. The collection retails from $22 for a graphic tee to $50 for a pair of jeans, expect embroidered tattoo on the back of a jacket to ...

If you are like me and have 20 or more years before you plan on touching your investments, times like this make you giddy.

The DOW is back down to 12,500 and now at levels seen since April and another day or two of this will give us levels back to November 2006. Why then is this great?

In mid May I wrote a post about selling my Citigroup shares to Sears Holdings (SHLD) Chairman and ESL leader Eddie Lampert.

In it I lamented the fact that I was thinking along the same lines as Lampert but did not stick to my guns and bailed on Citi (C) shares at the same time Lampert was buying them. I vowed not to make the same mistake again and re-entered my Citi position.

Sears Holdings (SHLD)chairman Eddie Lampert was a busy buyer last month Sears said it spent $800 million in the last month buying back stock and said its board approved an additional $1.5 billion repurchase plan. The company bought back $1.5 billion in stock during the second quarter at an average price of $153.

What could be worse than trying to turn around Kmart and Sears? The only thing I can think of is trying to do that when the low end consumer is being squeezed from all angles and the housing market is weak.