)Excerpt from http://www.gourmet.com:
The Spam Index
Since abandoning her day job for freelancing, my colleague Nanette Maxim has become a keen follower of the stock market. It appears she may have stumbled across an indicator that has escaped Wall Street financiers.
Last Friday, as recessionary fears led to another down day for the battered Dow Jones Industrial Average, shares of Hormel Foods Corp. surged more than six percent, driven by increased sales of the company’s signature processed pork product: SPAM. Chief Executive Jeffrey Ettinger told Reuters that it’s clear that there’s a slowdown in the economy, and that SPAM can appeal to budget-conscious consumers.
It’s understandable that big-time stock analysts overlooked this trend. The last time I checked, the popular Hormel brand was not listed on the menus of the Manhattan steakhouses they frequent for their expense account entertaining.
I’ll leave it to you to draw your own conclusions about the dietary habits of freelance writers.