Rising Consumer Sentiment Is Good news For Retailers Like Wal-Mart

There has been a steady stream of encouragingly better news on the economic front from the U.S.A. Retail sales were up 0.8 percent for the month of July, representing the biggest increase since the month of February, and the first positive number in four months. In July, payrolls rose by 163,000, the highest in five months. The index of leading economic indicators rose much better than expected in July – it rose 0.4 percent against a forecast of 0.2 percent. Today, the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary August index of consumer sentiment rose to 73.6 from 72.3 in the previous…