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Misc. leads wholesale sales

Think about it, while wholesale sales rose (5th consecutive month), virtually all the growth came from the miscellaneous segment (BTW this is mostly an agricultural sector) -- too inconsequential to be enumerated, the melting pot of the the wholesale sector.  One sector is hurting, and it's a critical one:  machinery, equipment and supplies -- that's gone down (again).

Wholesale Sales September 2011
Wholesale sales increase in September
(Source: StatsCan)

Needless to say that since Misc. is mostly agricultural, the gains were mostly in Canada's Western provinces.  It's still a good report, although worrying for the rest of Canada -- the recent weakness of the CAD should help the manufacturing sector -- assuming that the world doesn't end (odds are good).

Although this week should be fascinating.  Greece has a right wing government (we're not talking garden variety, but the extreme -- you know think of the more nutty element of the GOP), Spain has a new center right  (majority) government.  Yields are rising in France, Italy and Greek bonds are also having fun -- with a French downgrade looking increasingly likely.  Watch some of the French banks this week, as investors realize that nationalization cannot be far off (not that they can afford it -- if you thing the UK and Irish were screwed by the size of their bank bail out -- child's play compare to France...).

Then you've got 'Merica and its "Supper Committee" that will come out tomorrow with "no agreement" -- was there ever any doubt about this...




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