The level of optimism of companies coming out of July and August is reasonable. It's easier to beat August sales targets since they are traditionally quite low.

With the year-end and new-year retail sales showing good results, the market mirrors optimism about the outlook of domestic consumption.

Cigarette sales would drop to zero overnight if the warning said "CIGARETTES CONTAIN FAT."

We believe that Hurricane Isabel could negatively impact September sales by approximately 0.5 to 1.0 percent. Retail stock prices have historically declined during hurricanes 54 percent of the time but usually recover quickly.

It was record assets under management, record sales, record earnings per share.

I expect it will cut my truck sales 30 percent. Next January my diesel sales will be 10 percent, then 20 percent in February and sometime by the middle of next summer I will be selling trucks again.