Increases in the Economy, Oil Companies, Inflation & Consumers, and Harrison Johnson, CFP®: Early Retirement

• Increases in the Economy: Retail sales came out today with a headline miss as they grew 0.3% compared to January below the estimate of 0.4%. A major positive in the report was January was revised upwards and compared to December, retail sales grew 4.9%. The initial January report showed a gain of just 3.8%. 
• Oil Companies
  If you hold in your portfolio oil companies like BP, Shell, or Exxon you may want to be prepared for a write down of assets against earnings in the next quarter or two if the Ukraine Russia war does not change course soon. 
• Inflation & Consumers
  Many comparisons are being made to the 1970s with the current situation of inflation and rising gas prices. One big difference today versus then is that in the 70s food and energy costs consumed 20% of consumers budgets.
• LA Ports
  Things are improving at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles in regard to container ships. The number waiting for berths at the port has now dropped to 50 roughly half of the 100 at the peak back in January. This could be a positive for inflation as more goods hit the markets.
• Harrison Johnson, CFP®: Early Retirement