Walmart feeling pitch from slow down in China?

[M-technik-3]

Walmart is closing 260 stores, mean while the market is doing what's called a correction. Looks like a panic sell off to me. Oil down again as well.

[Vedubin01]

but the economy is doing so well and all that printing of money and QE is good for this economy. How dare you talk about a down turn, its Bush's fault!

[Thunder Child]

Except the economy is doing good. Especially for Walmart. They are hardly closing anything in the grand scheme of things, they are still doing very well.

[mrsleeve]

Really its doing well..... for who...

Oil below 30 bucks a barrel (this is a bad thing)... Baltic Dry Index down to levels not seen since the 90s (when global trade was much less), Cheap mortgages with stupid minimum terms to get again to keep the bubble going. Interest rates still to low, shall I continue.

Its going great if you are a debt issuing party, but that's about it .

[BraveUlysses]

I believe the articles about these closures indicate most are in brazil and the total square footage being closed is less than 1% of their total retail square footage.

[nando]

sleeve, oil being cheap is bad for you - but it's pretty good for everyone else. it's a mixed bag for me, personally. I wouldn't say it's bad for the economy as a whole, unless you're an oil barron.

as far as the stores Walmart is closing. I wonder if anyone actually reads the full story, or if they all go straight to conspiracy theory? These include a small format concept that Walmart tried, and it didn't work out. So they are closing those stores. The macro economy has nothing to do with it.

[M-technik-3]

Oil market is about to be flooded soon due to sanctions were removed against Iran. They have been sitting on a huge mass of oil that they have been unable to sell on the open free market since the 1980 and that is huge.

Gas at the pump might see a dollar this year, Remember in spring of 09 gas went down to $1 and change but quickly went back up.

[fight4life28]

thought most of the stores closing were within 10 miles or close to one another....

[mrsleeve]

sleeve, oil being cheap is bad for you - but it's pretty good for everyone else. it's a mixed bag for me, personally. I wouldn't say it's bad for the economy as a whole, unless you're an oil barron.

.

Right it does directly affect me more than most. But over all oil this cheap is a bad thing in general for the USA. The major industry that that not only didnt struggle but gained leaps and bounds since the great rescission is/was the energy business as a whole. The US is now for the 1st time in nearly 40 years (since the embargo days of the 1970s) an EXPORTER of oil. Yes we can finally sell oil again, in fact the 1st tanker load from Conco is due to land in Italy on the 20th, and Enterprise is due to send off its 1st shipment some time soon.....

As you know much of our domestic production is based in tight shale formations that need 45-60 bucks a barrel to turn a profit.... Pricing this low is not good for our production, in which our govts make billions in tax, lease and royalties from, not to mention all of us over paid oil field workers starving to death. The level at which the saudis/opec are running now would have held oil in the 70 dollar range when in general things were booming a decade ago.

Pricing this low, shows that demand in general around the world is SLOWING and the ever building glut in supply waiting for better delivery terms. Put this with the Baltic Dry Index data from the last few quarters, shows an even bigger slow down across the general economy not just the energy sector a something big is Looming I fear. Only to add to the Energy export woes the 0 admin is ceasing new coal leases in the powder river basin in WY. When you add in Iran coming back on line and able to sell to anyone and unlocking a 100+ B in frozen assets is only going to compound the situation even more.

Yes its good for everyone one with cheap gas, but the pain that is going to be inflicted to get those prices to happen is going to be FAR FAR worse for everyone, not just us energy sector guys......

[Wschnitz]

You guys are right, the world is ending because oil is in oversupply.

If we were not able to export oil before, why would it murder our economy now sleeve? Of course the over supply is a bad thing for the oil energy sector, but saying that oil is the only part of the energy sector that would effect this is just silly.

Maybe we will finally start making some more rapid changes in energy.

[mrsleeve]

You guys are right, the world is ending because oil is in oversupply.

If we were not able to export oil before, why would it murder our economy now sleeve? Of course the over supply is a bad thing for the oil energy sector, but saying that oil is the only part of the energy sector that would effect this is just silly.

Maybe we will finally start making some more rapid changes in energy.

We have not been able to export due to reactionary protectionist legislation in the 70s. The fact that we have an outlet beyond domestic use, opens up the abilty and reason to continue development of the resource. IE make money and add BILLIONS to the US domestic economy. A healthy oil price is indicative of a healthy economy not just domestically but globally.

The glut in supply, is not good, and shows that the world does not have the demand to use it up (and would have a decade ago at this level of out put). I am not saying a low price is going to kill the system, I am saying its a tell tale indication of whats going on GLOBALLY and that system is in turmoil and had been for a while now
.

If there is not enough demand to use CHEAP convention energy sources , why the hell would there be RAPID changes in utilization of FAR MORE EXPENSIVE sources???? Especially in very slow down economy ????

[Kershaw]

Shouldn't we get back on track about some stores closing in Brazil that is hugely affecting our economy instead of arguing about how the dropping price of solar is going to kill the current energy industry?

[Wschnitz]

Shouldn't we get back on track about some stores closing in Brazil that is hugely affecting our economy instead of arguing about how the dropping price of solar is going to kill the current energy industry?

Yeah I think the media speculation blows things like this up way too much. Walmarts little mini mart shit never worked well. We had them out on west coast everywhere and they were not really worth going to, always missing something you needed which made going to it over a normal walmart pointless.

[ST1G]

I don't think low oil is a bad thing at all. It's not because of decreasing demand but because of increased supply. Oil companies should have realized three years ago that it wasn't going to last forever and accordingly, kept cash on hand.

[nando]

And the difference from the '90s is US shale production basically didn't exist, and shale extraction is happening all over the world, not just here. Also, cars are a heck of a lot more fuel efficient than they were 20 years ago. Even trucks have made huge gains.

as far as coal - we can do without it. We have more natural gas than we know what to do with. Maybe we could get some new, modern nuke plants going within the next 10 years too..