This week Brown-Forman Corp. (one of the largest American-owned companies in the spirits and wine business and parent-company for Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey) announced fourth quarter earnings. Although they beat analyst expectations and experienced a favorable response from the market - their report showed a 19% drop in profit and a 12% drop in sales.Translation: A drop in sales and profit for a liquor company means people are drinking less. Now, logic would tell us that if life is getting harder for people (i.e. foreclosures, job loss, etc.) then more people would be prone to hit the bottle. But, according to these numbers, fewer people are doing so. Which means one of two things: Either (1) the economy is so bad that people can't afford to drink their problems away or (2) things aren't as bad as we thought and people don't need a Jack Daniel to make it through the day!
Here's to hoping the latter is true... that wasn't a toast! :) Just thought I'd add my predictor to the never-ending supply of market indicators people are looking at to see when the bleeding will stop!
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