PRE MARKET LOOK

Retail sales coming in pretty lousy this morning as hot weather and high gasoline prices keep consumers away from the stores. SP Futures are gapping down about 6 points and it will be interesting to see if the beginning of the month money shows to negate some of the poor consumer news.

Oil stocks look like they are also set to gap down as the feared hurricane may not be so scary. These equities are on my radar screen as "buy the pullback," so I will be buying OIH XLE on weakness.