Today's Key Market News - Consumer Exposed

Stock futures are indicated higher this morning despite a clear bright red warning flag from the personal spending data released this morning, which was slightly below expectations. The market continues to seek sharp turns before it moves, but with an economy this large, those kinds of turns are only caused by slap in the face type events, like 9/11 for instance or the Saddam Sell-off. When you're looking for consumer softening, don't expect it to show up out of the blue. Rather, pay attention to the mounting case and the logical direction of relative factors. We are preparing a "Today's Coffee" for you to take a closer look at the details.

Key Headlines:

Bloomberg: Consumer Spending Comes Up Short
CNN Money: Oil Inching Near Record High
USA Today: Employment Costs Problematic
Bloomberg: S&P/Case Shiller Housing Price Index Shows May Decline
Forbes: Forbes Writes Dow Jones Deal Off, CNBC Says Deal Certain
Yahoo! Earnings Calendar
AP/Yahoo!: GM Posts Profit
AP/Yahoo!: J&J to Restructure Business, Cut 4% Workforce (JNJ)
AP/Yahoo!: Sirius Loss Narrows (SIRI)
AP/Yahoo!: Sun Micro Beats Street (SUNW)
AP/Yahoo!: Mortgage Insurance Not the Sure Thing Anymore (PMI, RDN, MTG)
AP/Yahoo!: Gartner, IT Barometer
BBC: Condi Warns Mideast About Iran
BBC: Creating a Ruse Perhaps Just as Effective for Islamists in Jordan
Financial Times: Abe's Fight for Survival
Economist: The Geopolitical Week Ahead
Iran Daily: Tales from the Dark Side

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