Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) - Shoppers “Didn’t Have the Time.”

This morning, Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) reported that December holiday sales were much less than expected. It comes on the heel of reports that Americans actually cut back holiday spending this year.

Bed Bath & Beyond (Nasdaq: BBBY) reported lower sales as consumers clearly “did not have the time,” or the money. It joined a growing list of retailers who saw sales and income drop this Christmas.

Retail outlets are having great difficulty maintaining their levels of profitability as consumers cut back - massive sales and promotions don’t seem to be doing the trick. And for investors looking to profit, the outlook doesn’t look good.

But that doesn’t mean there weren’t companies with products that didn’t fly off the shelves. Nintendo’s (OTC: NYDOY) Wii consol and Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) products

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This is the time of year in which many  investors really start to study corporate earnings, jobless statistics and all sorts of other state data in an effort to divine what’s next for China. But I simply prefer to head for the Wan Chai Street Market in Hong Kong, or the Temple Street Night Market across the harbor in Kowloon, and check on hairy crab prices as we approach the Lunar New Year.

These delectable little guys are usually served steamed, with a splash of soy sauce. When China’s booming like it was in recent years, shoppers are hard-pressed to find a store that can keep them on the shelves. And at 720RMB, or $420HK (about $60 U.S.), that’s no small feat for a palm-sized morsel. They’re expensive, and taste great.

A hairy crab, if you’ve never seen

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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 ...

U.S. stocks fell on Thursday after most retailers posted weak retail sales and reduced their earnings outlook, even after denting margins with heavy discounts to lure consumers. Bellwether Wal-Mart (WMT) missed Wall Street expectations on December same-store sales and guided to a dismal fourth quarter.

Wal-Mart blamed snowstorms during the crucial holiday season for forecasting quarterly earnings between 91 cents to 94 cents a share, down from a prior view of $1.03 to $1.07. Although Wal-Mart was one of the few retailers that posted comparable-store sales growth for the month of December, the 1.7% increase still fell short of analysts' estimates. The retailer fell more than 8% to $50.31 after the announcement.

Rivals Target (TGT) saw December same-store sales falling 4.1%, while comps were down 4% at Macy's (M). Both the companies warned of lower profits in the fourth quarter. Gap (

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Throughout this consumer-led recession, we've seen the trading-down from specialty goods and name brands to generic goods and discount items, not out of choice, but necessity. Wal-Mart (a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=wmt"WMT/a) has seen strong sales, and that trend should continue. But I'd take it a step further and take look at dollar stores. Family Dollar (a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=fdo"FDO/a) a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE5062TB20090107"posted strong results/a and raised their profit outlook. There aren't many companies doing that right now. br /br /span style="font-style: italic;""The company expects full-year sales to rise 4 percent to 6 percent, up from a prior outlook of 3 percent to 5 percent. On a same-store basis, it forecast a sales gain of 2 percent to 4 percent; it previously called for a rise of 1 percent to 3 percent."/spanbr /br /Dollar Tree (a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=DLTR"DLTR/a) would be another similar company. These companies appear to be some ...

A Question of Leadership at Apple (NYSE: AAPL)

Based off the last news reports, without Steve Jobs, the multi-billion-dollar enterprise that is Apple (NYSE: AAPL) would simply cease to exist. Every new report of his health is followed in the market, and Apple’s stock price takes corresponding hikes and plunges.

But Apple isn’t the only corporation with similar founder/leader issues.

Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A), and Dell, (NYSE: DELL), for example, both have stocks tied to the brand name of their founders - Warren Buffett and Michael Dell.

And when investors worry about the health of these figureheads, they send the stock price plummeting. But does this mean that the fundamentals of these companies are also in danger?

Far from it.

Microsoft (NYSE: MSFT) hasn’t collapsed since Bill Gates stepped down. Martha Stewart’s Martha Stewart Living

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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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We are maintaining our Hold rating on shares of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia  (MSO). Despite the likelihood of a protracted recession, we think MSO can meet our EPS estimates, driven by revenue growth and margin expansion in the Broadcasting and Merchandising segment.The company continues to execute on its original strategy of leveraging its Martha Stewart brand across all business segments, signing a slew of high-margin merchandising deals since 2006 -- including a recent deal with Wal-Mart (WMT), and repositioning its website away from on-line commerce to an interactive, ad-generating aggregator of content.At the end of 3Q08, the company had $72.9 million in cash, $22.5 million in debt, and shareholders equity of $157 million. During 3Q08, MSO generated $6 million in free cash flow.Sumit Singh contributed to this report.Read the full analyst report on MSO ...

NFLX: The Netflix Index

Nuevo-indices, like Estee Lauder’s (NYSE: EL) “lipstick index,” the bartender index or the video game index, all have their day in the sun during market downturns. Often they’re dismissed as distractions, or excuses for poor performance.

But their fundamentals are based on real consumer trends and psychology.

Areas like entertainment, clothing and luxury items are often cut back during downturns. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t replaced with substitutes. Frugal doesn’t mean spendthrift. Consumers are still buying.

Purchases are justified by their reduced cost, or the “savings” from not spending money elsewhere. Entertainment like Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) carries a cost – but nothing like going to a movie three times a week. It’s this mentality that we can find profits in.

Many companies have benefited from cost-conscious shoppers and savers, and others are benefiting from negative psychology.

Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT) and

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Highlighted stocks include Huntington Bancshares Inc. (HBAN), MGIC Investment Corporation (MTG) and MBIA Inc. (MBI). Even though it appears that financial institutions have moved ahead with respect to the unfreezing of our banking system, they remain reluctant to lend. With financial institutions afraid of the potential of additional losses, their current Anaconda grip on lending only exacerbates the problem. While we continue to see financial institutions advertise their willingness to lend, the hook remains, "qualified" home buyers. Clearly, the definition of "qualified" has changed dramatically over the past year to mean "pristine credit". As credit score requirements continue to be ratcheted higher, additional hurdles have been added. Credit card client "profiling", with respect to their shopping habits, has increased. So by example, you previously shopped at a gourmet grocer and now it's predominately at a Super Target or Wal-Mart. Even though the

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