The Home Depot Inc (HD), the world’s largest home improvement specialty retailer, has recently announced a deal with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc (MSO), a diversified media and merchandising company, to create a new product line of home improvement products. The strategic move is aimed at getting a leg up on rival companies like Lowe Companies Inc (LOW), a leading chain of retail home improvement and appliance stores. The new product line will primarily feature outdoor living, home organization, and home decor items. The outdoor living products are scheduled to hit the shelves in Jan. 2010 in the U.S. and in Feb. 2010 in Canada. Home organization products are expected to be launched in Feb. 2010 across the globe. Martha Stewart intends to promote the products through diverse marketing channels including its magazine, TV show, and web portal like Twitter – a free social ...

Are consumers’ happy days here again, or are the recent signs that growth in sales, confidence and an overall improvement in the economy just a mirage?

Confidence among U.S. consumers rose this month for a fourth straight time, according to the Reuters/University of Michigan (UM) preliminary index of consumer sentiment. The index increased to 69, which is less than what was forecast but still the highest level in nine months. May’s index was 68.7.

“Confidence is slowly but surely coming back,” James O’Sullivan, a senior economist at UBS Securities LLC told Bloomberg News. “In the next few months we should see more follow-through in the labor market, which in turn should give confidence a further boost, which in turn should lead to a sustained recovery in consumer spending.”

Another report from Investor’s Business Daily and TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence’s “Economic Optimism Index” shows consumer confidence rose to 50.8 this month from

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General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) is closing in quickly on its June 1 deadline to finish overhauling its operations, or opt for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Because that deadline is actually one week from yesterday (Monday), analysts and investors will be watching GM closely this week.

No matter which path GM chooses – conventional restructuring or bankruptcy – the U.S. Big Three of GM, Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) and Chrysler LLC will have to adjust to the U.S. auto market’s post-financial-crisis “new reality.” Automakers will sell only 10 million cars and trucks in the U.S. market this year, the worst in at least 30 decades – and roughly 38% less than the 16 million vehicles that were sold in the United States annually in recent years before the financial collapse caused an accompanying collapse in auto sales.

Part of the reason for the

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Highlights include Lowe's Companies, Inc. (LOW), The Home Depot, Inc. (HD), Citigroup Inc. (C), Bank of America Corp. (BAC), Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC), U.S. Bancorp (USB) and American International Group, Inc. (AIG).The Relationship of Home Improvement Heavyweights to the FinancialsEarly this week, both Lowe's (LOW) and Home Depot (HD) released better-than-anticipated results. Moreover, the comments made by Lowe's Chief Executive Robert Niblock that "with consumer confidence having rebounded off its historic lows and some encouraging signs in housing, we may have hit the bottom" helped to rally the markets and financial stocks in particular.However, what the markets did not pay attention to is how long could we bounce along the bottom.We think the results put up by both home improvement giants on the surface may have been a bit misleading. First, remember ...

U.S. housing starts and permits unexpectedly plummeted to record lows in April, torpedoing hopes of a housing market recovery as well as hopes the overall economy is regaining traction.

Starts for privately owned homes clocked in at a 458,000 annual rate, a 12.8% decline from March’s revised rate of 525,000 and a 54.2% dive from April 2008’s annual rate of 1,001,000 starts, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Meanwhile, building permits for privately owned housing units were applied for at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 494,000, 3.3% below March’s revised rate of 511,000 and a 50.2% plummet from April 2008’s revised rate of 991,000.

The Commerce Department report also sheds light on the complexity of the housing market’s fallout and path to recovery.

Most strikingly, while starts in the West have dropped 52.9% from last year, they actually rose 42.5% from March 2009. The

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Investors are breathing a sigh of relief that 2008 is over, but they shouldn’t get too comfortable. After all, with a worldwide recession under way, investors can expect acceleration in corporate bankruptcies in 2009.

But the question is - which ones?

In the financial services sector, 2008 was a year of spectacular failures:

Bear Stearns Cos. and Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. were absorbed by JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Bank of America (BAC), respectively. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (OTC: LEHMQ) filed for bankruptcy protection. And financial-sector giants American International Group Inc. (AIG) and Citigroup Inc. (C) were both bailed ...

By William Patalon III Executive Editor Money Morning/The Money Map Report Although consumers and businesses have gotten a bit of a reprieve at the gas pump as of late, the escalation in oil prices we’ve seen over the past year has led to some major changes in overall consumer behavior. Many car-owners have dumped their gas-guzzling pickup trucks and SUVs at the nearest used-car lot and used the proceeds to buy some gas-sipping rides. Companies with large distribution networks have redesigned their shipping schedules, crafting more efficient routes that accommodated larger truckloads. The upshot: Gasoline sales tumbled during the first half of the year as domestic demand fell to its lowest level in five years.  In fact, the U.S. Department of Transportation reported that Americans drove almost 5% less in June than a year ago, and also said that the buses, subways ...