What a tangled Web

Regulations on the horizon that focus on how Internet retailers gather information from consumers have caused trade groups to try to beat rule-makers to the punch.

Don't be surprised to soon see an icon on certain Web pages notifying you that your activity is being tracked, according to a recent piece in the Wall Street Journal. When clicked, the icon would tell you what information the retailer gathers and which companies it shares the information with, according to the article.

Sites could also include a feature to allow Web surfers to decline having their information gathered. If I were designing the feature I would call it the "no-brainer" button.

Not suprisingly, one ad agency managing director told the Journal that limiting access to consumers' information would make it less likely that a marketer "can provide more timely, relevant and targeted ads to consumers."

I guess that's up to you, the consumer, whether that's a good or bad thing. I know what way I'll be clicking.

Brian.

Here's hoping these signs of life aren't elusive

Market watchers got a boost today with the release of durable goods data.

The data revealed that orders for durable goods - things like appliances, cars, and business equipment - rose 1.8 percent in the month of May. Stocks gained on the news after faltering the past few days.

But that doesn't mean happy days are here again.

Joe Keating, chief investment officer at RBC Bank, issued some bullet points about positives and negatives in the current environment. Here's a sampling:

• The pace of single-family housing starts rose 7.5% to an annual rate of 401,000 in May, following readings of 373,000 in April, 361,000 in March and 357,000 in February and January.
  The stability, and even a modest upward trend, in single-family housing starts since February point to the more than three-year slide in single-family home construction coming to an end. While we expect that a bottom in home building has been reached, a sustained rebound will likely not take hold until next spring due to the huge supply of existing homes still for sale, the record wave of mortgage foreclosures which is dumping more unsold homes on the market, the rise in mortgage rates since mid-March, which is cutting into affordability and the ongoing efforts by employers to cut jobs.
• Industrial production fell -1.1% m/m in May after dropping -0.7% in April as the recession continues to hold back demand for manufactured goods, including automobiles, machinery and household appliances. The ongoing decline in industrial production -13.5% over the past year - is a sober reminder that even if the now 18-month-old recession is leveling out, it has not ended, and a return to a self-sustaining and self-reinforcing economic recovery is unlikely for a number of months.
  

Keating also said that consumer prices hardly rose in May, meaning that inflation is being kept in check.

Brian.