Retail Sales

The stock market is having a party today. Apparently traders are happy about WalMarts better-than-expected retail sales! Chucky isn't dead! Party on! Except .....

You can always count on Barry Ritholtz to perform due diligence throw cold water on the party.

Turns out that WalMart reported their earnings without including the sales of gasoline. They exclude gasoline because it's highly volatile (pun intended) in price and could distort their sales. But guess what? They don't remove food, which has been going up in price like a skyrocket. So how much of WalMart's sales increase is due to increased sales, and how much of it is due to increased food pricing? I'll let you take a guess, but here's a hint. Other retailers that don't sell food have had very disappointing results.