Retail Sales In January -- February 12, 2015

Regardless of how you look at it, this is really quite impressive -- see graph at the link:

For the first time ever, real federal tax revenues topped $1 trillion in the first four months of the fiscal year--October through January--according to data released Wednesday by the U.S Treasury.

 One wonders how much low interest rates contribute to these incredible tax receipts?

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 Retail Sales

I've always thought the "retail sales" data number was "crazy" to include gasoline receipts. Perhaps that made sense when the price of gasoline stayed relatively stable over months and/or years, but look how that one data point, gasoline receipts, affects the headline:

U.S. retail sales fell sharply last month as gas prices plummeted and auto sales slowed. But excluding those volatile categories, Americans stepped up their spending a bit.

Retail sales dropped 0.8 percent in January, the Commerce Department said Thursday, following a 0.9 percent decline in December. The dollar value of gas station sales plunged 9.3 percent, the largest drop in six years. Auto dealer sales also fell for the second straight month.

To me, that's all good news for Joe Six-Pack. Gasoline cost him 9.3% less -- the largest drop in six years. And if Joe Six-Pack didn't buy a new car, it looks like he had more money to spend elsewhere, or his girlfriend Connie Cooler was spending his money elsewhere.

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What's He Smoking?

And I thought Brian Williams talked a good story. Here's Elon:

Tesla Motors Inc missed fourth-quarter sales targets and analysts' profit expectations, but Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk on Wednesday said by 2025 Tesla's growth trajectory could take its market value to $700 billion, matching that of Apple Inc.  

"Missed fourth-quarter sales"? That's an understatement. A lot of $108 million. Elon was so upset he threatened to fire his executives in China.

Tesla's market cap today? About $25 billion. EOG's market cap is twice that at $50 billion. And EOG's number one product is facing a price slump seldom seen.

Update, later today: how is Tesla doing today? The headline, "Tesla hits the skids." After slumping yesterday when earnings came out, Tesla is down another $11 (over 5%) today. This does not look like a trajectory that will take Tesla to Apple's market cap by 2025. Possibly RadioShack's.

Update, February 14, 2015: just how crazy were Elon Musk's comments? Pretty crazy. 

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Other News

Expedia to buy Orbitz, for $1.4 billion.

US becomes hot sport for aerospace industry. Link here. 

Costco and AmEx will part ways in the US, April, 2015. They have already parted ways in Canada. That's too bad. I cannot remember the last time I was in a Costco -- at least two or three years ago -- but I liked the AmEx card and a second family member, our younger daughter loved Costco because that's where she bought in bulk the stuff she needed for church dinners. I don't need "another M/C." Whatever.

Speaking of parting ways: