RANDOM THOUGHTS BEFORE AM DATA

Investors More Concerned About Spending at Medifast Than Record Earnings

NEW YORK (AP) -- Investors in Medifast Inc., which makes weight-loss products, on Tuesday will have to determine whether they think the company is shrewdly increasing dollars spent on advertising to grow sales, or is merely throwing money away. (PLUNGING by $5 !!!! who saw that coming??)


TUES data was a WEAK pHILA FED number, and a ZOOMING NEt Foreign PUrchases $75B !!!! WTF is saying foreignors are sick of our debt???

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Economists are predicting a 0.4 percent rise in consumer prices in July when the numbers are released this morning by the Labor Department.

Yesterday, it was announced that prices at the wholesale level edged up by the smallest amount in five months in July as falling food prices helped offset another rise in energy costs. (are you bleep bleep kidding me!??? there was a " seasonal adj to data !!!!!" this is pure BS!!! and what rally is based on, WHY I am not excited)

Consumer inflation slowed in June, helped by a temporary drop in energy prices. (again WTF???? WHAT DROP in energy pals what what???)The CPI rose by just 0.2 percent in June, the smallest increase in four months and just half of the 0.4 percent May rise.

contrast:
For July, energy prices were up 1.3 percent, the biggest increase since a 4 percent jump in April. Gasoline prices were up 0.7 percent, natural gas for home use was up 0.9 percent and residential electricity costs jumped 1.8 percent, the biggest increase since January.

Those higher energy costs were expected to show up quickly in higher consumer energy bills
***(I was getting my beloved some Kalamata Olives from Safeway last night, a meager looking fellow was counting loose change to pay for his $5 plus few items.....some reason had to be scanned again, maybe he gave something back he couldn't pay for. He quipped " Sorry about that, all this change, I paid my $2,800 mortgage !!!??? I'll be lucky to eat dogfood rest of month..." Checkout gal says "at least you paid it...." WOWEEEEEEE

Analysts are worried that rising inflation pressures may force the Fed off hold and result in further interest rate increases in coming months.

The 0.3 percent drop in food costs reflected a retreat in a variety of food costs which had surged in June. Egg prices fell by 26.1 percent, the biggest one-month drop in six years while fish prices were down 9.1 percent and soft drink prices dropped by 1.4 percent.

Outside of food and energy, prices were mostly lower with some notable exceptions. Tire prices jumped 3.5 percent, the biggest one-month gain in 27 years.

Offsetting that increase, the price of newspapers dropped by 1.2 percent, the biggest decline in 13 years, while the cost of light trucks was down 3.1 percent and the price of passenger cars fell by 0.8 percent.



http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060810/analyst_note_ethanol_sector.html?.v=1 ethanol
Rousseau said VeraSun "is ahead of its peers in terms of capacity expansion plans." Aventine, meanwhile, is one of the lowest-cost producers of ethanol due to its particular milling technology and use of coal as a power source. The analyst called Pacific Ethanol's plan to build plants on the West Coast and ship corn from the Midwest "a unique but unproven business model."
Rousseau's outlook, however rosy, couldn't counteract the dampening effect of lower crude prices Thursday, and ethanol stocks moved lower in line with falling oil prices.
On Tuesday, VeraSun Energy shares got a boost after the company posted solid second-quarter profit, reversing a year-ago loss and coming in ahead of Wall Street's expectations.