Retail Bloodbath

Over a year ago I stopped owning shares in retail companies. I was worried about the state of the American consumer. Arguably my call was early. But it has been a bloodbath in some big name retailers of late.

BBY is off by 35%
KSS is down 8%
JCP is down 28%
SHLD is down 23%
BKE is down 10%
AEO is flat

You get the picture. This is in just 1/2 a month. I am sure some are up (Macy's for instance), but the trend is not your friend.  I may stick a toe in the water with my February tranche, COH is still on my watch list (down about 7%).

Speaking of bloodbaths, NUS is setting new standards. They were down 16% on Wednesday. Today they are down by 32%. (I guess tomorrow they will be down 64%!). It was a good rule break. I will try to keep the rule breaks to a minimum.

I did buy C today. It had been on my watch list for nine months, Barron's and ML both have it as a top 10 2014 stock. Today's 3% sell off seemed a decent entry point. So I now own two banks, C and CS. Of course I also have my BAC warrants. At some point, I would love a regional bank like PNC or else a COF, but I need a sale to get me there.

I also put in a buy order on NTC. This is a Closed End Fund specializing in municipal bonds in Ct.  This is not meant to be a huge money maker,  but rather help provide a steady eddy tax free (gotta love that) income as I glide towards retirement. I will not track it here as it is "different", but I will include in my dividends by quarter charts.