Oil goes lower as supply reports show consumption continues to fall. I have not seen a drop at the pump yet though. Funny how exxon and shell and the rest of them raise the prices before they even hit the news when its heading up , but do not expect the same diligence when prices are going lower. 

Also, heading lower were retail sales at teen stores as well as higher end retailers such as Abercrombie and Saks. However, Walmart not only met, but beat wall street expectations. Although we may not all agree with Walmart as a business their lower prices have helped people weather our current economic conditions better than otherwise possible without them. I know myself included, shop there often because the difference in price over other mainstream stores is significant.  Please see the full stories below…

Oil down on lower-than-expected US gas supplies
AP – Thursday September 4, 11:55 am ET
By Stevenson Jacobs, AP Business Writer 
Oil prices down near $107 a barrel after US gas supplies fall less than expected last week

NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices fell for a fifth straight session Thursday after a lower-than-expected drop in U.S. gasoline supplies fed beliefs that a cooling economy is curbing fuel demand in the world’s thirstiest consumer.
 
Light, sweet crude for October delivery fell $2.31 cents to $107.04 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange as traders digested the Energy Information Administration report. Earlier, prices fluctuated between positive and negative territory.

On Wednesday, prices settled 36 cents lower at $109.35 a barrel, a day after a dramatic, nearly $6 plunge in response to less damage from Hurricane Gustav than the oil industry feared.

In its weekly inventory report, the Energy Department’s EIA said U.S. gasoline stocks fell by 1 million barrels to 194.4 million barrels for the week ending Aug. 29, less than the 1.8 million-barrel drop analysts surveyed by energy research firm had Platts expected.
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Stocks plunge after retail, unemployment data
AP – Thursday September 4, 1:02 pm ET
By Joe Bel Bruno, AP Business Writer 
Stocks slide after retail sales reports, unemployment data add to market’s gloom about economy

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street tumbled Thursday on more disappointing economic news — retailers posted sluggish back-to-school sales reports and the government said the number of workers seeking unemployment benefits spiked last week. The Dow Jones industrials fell nearly 250 points.
 
Investors, already highly anxious about the overall state of the economy, were further unsettled when many of the nation’s retailers said shoppers curtailed spending last month due to higher gas and food prices. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, beat Wall Street projections because of its discounts.

Meanwhile, the Labor Department said new applications for unemployment insurance rose by 15,000 from the previous week. That broadly missed expectations for a fourth-straight week of declines.
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