Two seemingly disparite headlines-

[LiberallyInclined]

I opened up the web, and these two headlines were looking at me from the yahoo news section, right on top of each other:

# Retail sales rise 1.4 pct, twice forecast - 58 minutes ago
# Wal-Mart profit misses forecast; outlook weak - 11 minutes ago

How can they both be correct? Is not Walmart the king of all retail in this country...?

somebody's telling a fib somewhere...

[seriousstan]

1. The spending surge was led by a 2.5 percent jump in auto sales.

But the strength was widespread with clothing stores posting their best increase in 2 1/2 years.

If you post about an article it always help to actually read it.

[LiberallyInclined]

3. first of all, i didn't post about the articles...

i posted about the headlines.

and secondly- if you read both articles, they paint two different pictures-

The numbers will likely to be seen as a sign consumer spending, which drives two-thirds of U.S. output, was faring well at the start of the second quarter.

"You could well have the first quarter being revised up after yesterday's trade numbers, and it looks like the second quarter is off to a good start in terms of consumer spending," said Egelton.

vs...

Shari Eberts, retail analyst with J.P. Morgan, said the company's second-quarter forecast "is the largest negative revision in recent memory," and shares of Wal-Mart fell nearly 4 percent in early trading.

Wal-Mart's sales have suffered in recent quarters as soaring gasoline prices cut into household budgets, and the world's No. 1 retailer said it expects energy prices to weigh on second-quarter results too.

Walmart is always being touted as a belleweather of the retail sector, and one article is saying the second quarter numbers will be good, yet walmart has a gloomier forcast-

[BR_Parkway]

2. Or the backlash against Wal-Mart is stronger than we've thought

Had Conservatives here over the weekend (true ones, not Neo-cons) - they hate what Wally World is doing to this country, we had a great conversation about the rise in corporate profits, shipping the jobs overseas, the REASONS for starting Iraq war, the Waynesville church along with the Radical Clerics Falwell, Dobson and Robertson - and we were both in complete agreement!!!

Biggest agreement was that the idea of the "parties" being on opposite sides does more to keep Americans pointing fingers at each other instead of demanding accountability of our multi-millionaire, constantly fundraising, corporate beholden representatives.

[RaleighNCDUer]

4. Maybe not -- perhaps it's just evidence of what I've been saying

for years: What's good for WalMart is bad for the country. If that's true, it stands to reason that the opposite would also be true.