Thursday Randomosity

• Getting the blame for today’s market selloff?  Retail reports! $$ Stocks tumbled Thursday, with much of the selling coming late in the day as investors became more concerned about the pace of consumer spending. The market also came under pressure as major indexes failed to hold above key chart levels.
• Obviously, investors haven’t been following me around this week.  But then, they’d be worrying about consumer debt.  If it’s not one thing, it’s another Rosanne Rosannadanna.
• What? Thursday night already? Where did the time go this week?  Oh, the iPad.  Yes, the iPad.
• Oil hits 3-month low.  Er, what about gas prices, fellas?  Give up the lag time and cut us a break!  Crude-oil futures tumbled to a three-month low Thursday in volatile trading amid persistent concerns over swelling inventories at a key U.S. storage hub.  (Yeah, that new storage hub is called “the Gulf of Mexico.”)
• I hope folks are taking advantage of near historic low interest rate to refinance and lock in fixed rates, or eliminate debt altogether.  Here’s an article about Europe’s Newest Risk: Inflation. Europe's nearly $1 trillion rescue plan seems to have quieted the government debt storm for the time being. But another problem may be brewing as Britain and the euro countries tackle their still unresolved fiscal problems: rising inflation rates.
• The main reason is debt.  The only way out is to inflate and debase their money.
• The US has the same debt problem.  At some point down the road…  Oh, and I don’t own any bonds or bond funds.  None whatsoever.
• A $NFLX takeover?  Maybe. 
Technorati Tags: oil,inflation,stocks,nflx,netflix,debt
• Maybe not: UBS’s Brian Fitzgerald seems to have had enough of the rumors as he cuts the stock to “sell.” There’s one big reason to think it won’t happen, he writes, and that’s Netflix’s dozens of distribution centers around the country. They’d likely mean Amazon would be legally required to charge sales taxes in a whole new pile of states if it buys the company.