If Wal-Mart (WMT) is the "canary in the coalmine" regarding holiday retail sales this past year, the air's not looking too good down there. The mega-retailer has cut its 4th quarter earnings guidance following dismal 2008 holiday shopping season results.Other retailers, such as The Limited (LTD) and The Gap (GPS) also have reduced their outlooks, but Wal-Mart had been widely regarded as one company that would be able to retain at least a modicum of success during the very serious current U.S. economic crisis. Now that the lowest priced of the Big-Box stores is lowering expectations, what chance does anyone else in the retail sector have?Wal-Mart's news early today caused WMT stock to open down around 8%, and shares have not gained much, if any, momentum since then. Not even President-elect Obama's speech about the need for a $775 billion stimulus package ...

It’s clear that 2009 is going to be grim in economic terms. Martin Denholm says investors should stick to sectors that fare better during recessions. The healthcare sector, discount retailers and utilities companies provide essential products and generate repeat business. Martin picks the strongest companies in these “safe haven” sectors.

This from Smart Profits Report

A Healthcare Haven

It stands to reason that the sectors and companies that traditionally fare better during economic recessions are those that garner essential repeat business.

As my colleague Marc Lichtenfeld has pointed out many times here before, that includes the healthcare and biotech sectors. And far from procrastinating, Marc just issued his “Five Predictions For The Healthcare Sector In 2009″ for Xcelerated Profits Report subscribers in the January issue. If you’re not a subscriber, you should be! You can get more information on that here.

No matter what happens with the broader economy, people will still

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If there’s a proverb that captures the outlook for the U.S. economy in the New Year, it’s the one that says: “It’s always darkest before the dawn.”

Regardless of any formal announcement of whether or not the United States drops into an actual recession, the ongoing credit crisis guarantees a contraction of the American economy by virtually every measure we know. That period of darkness will be marked by a dramatic slowdown in economic activity, as well as by rising unemployment, additional declines in U.S. stock prices, and constant volatility. It could last as long as 12-18 months.

But when the dawn does come, it will be one to remember. If U.S. President-elect Barack Obama gets it right - and I have every reason to believe that he will - then investors will be presented with the greatest investment opportunity of our generation. At that point, shares of American companies will be

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Despite the global economic downturn China's retail sector is still growing — albeit at a diminishing rate. According to the statistics published by China's National Bureau of Statistics, in November 2008, China's total retail sales increased by 20.8% year-on-year to CNY979.08 billion. The report said the growth rate was 1.2 percentage points lower than that of October [...]

Monro Muffler Brake, Inc. (...

Feel like getting angry? Treasury publishes latest debt/deficit details… But Fed now encouraged to intervene more… latest data show historic inflation drop… How to invest accordingly? Burritt on near-term trading, Grantham on the long haul… Byron King explains why $40 oil is “worst of both worlds”… Bill Jenkins explains the dollar’s recent downturn… Plus, the Dububble expands… refrigerated beaches on UAE shores…

However dire you think U.S. government’s fiscal condition has become… today we learn it’s even worse. For starters, would you invest in this business?

2008 fiscal year net operating cost: $1 trillion. Triple that of 2007. And those aren’t funky alternative accounting methods… today’s charts and numbers come directly from the 2008 Financial Report of the U.S. Government, issued yesterday.

What is “net cost”? It is “computed by subtracting earned revenue

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Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) is thriving as recession grips the economy. As a cost leader in the retail sector, the company is benefiting from an increase in thrift. And it continues to expand its operations overseas. Horacio Marquez says Wal-Mart should emerge stronger than ever from this crisis, making it an essential part of any stock portfolio.

This frm Money Morning:

In an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT) Chief Executive Officer H. Lee Scott Jr. said the recession is changing consumer-buying habits.

What Scott didn’t say is that Wal-Mart is perfectly positioned to capitalize on those changes. “The No.1 issue today is [consumers'] concern about their job,” Scott said during the nationally televised interview. And because of that concern, Scott said consumers are making some of the following changes:

In the discounter’s “pharmacy ...

HIDDEN VALUE

Dear Value Seeker,

USA Inc today announced another 30,000 job cuts…

Telecoms giant AT&T led the cull. It said 12,000 of its workers would now be joining the ranks of the unemployed.

The Labor Department says the total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits as of November 22 rose to 4.09 million.

It’s the highest number since December 1982.

And more jobs could go in the retail sector, judging by today’s sales reports.

Analysts will no doubt agonize over the individual results. But we think David Gaffen from the WSJ MarketBeat blog sums it up perfectly with his headline “Wal-Mart Wins. Everyone else loses.”

Things are happening just as they should in a balance-sheet recession, says my dad, Bill Bonner, in today’s Daily Reckoning.

“People are getting fired for a very good reason: businesses need to correct their balance sheets…and redress their business models. They have to

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The outlook is bleak for retailers, says Adam Lass. As job losses mount, households are cutting back on all non-essential spending. And massive government bailouts won’t reach the high street in the near future. Adam says investors should continue to short the retail sector.

This from Taipan Daily:

We came, we saw, we ate too damn much.

(One of these days, I’ll ask my oldest daughter to translate that into Latin for me. She never did master the more common romance languages. But she’s the family whiz at Cicero and Caesar.)

The second phase of the “Great Annual Pig Out” (the first being the candy-fueled grotesquery that has swallowed All Hallows’ Eve and the third, the week-long debauchery that is Chanukah-Christmas-New Years) is now officially over and done with.

Under our belts, as it were.

We drove, we flew, heck, those who couldn’t avoid it might

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Retail experts are predicting one of the most dismal holiday shopping seasons in decades this year – a crucial stretch that will set the stage for poor retail sales throughout 2009.

As the U.S. economy decelerates, pummeled by the aftershocks of the worldwide financial crisis, consumers have been hit from every direction: Unemployment has spiked, and will continue to rise, economy unwinds and continues to work through the aftershocks of the global credit crisis, consumers have been beset on all sides. Unemployment is up, home prices are down, and credit is hard to come by.

And although inflation is beginning to moderate somewhat – slowing to a pace of 3.7% year-over-year in October – it’s still well above the U.S. Federal Reserve’s desired target rate of 2.0%.

With rampant inflation no longer artificially propping up consumer spending figures, retail sales have really started to lose their

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