It looks like Monday's rally will be a memory thanks to Tuesday's earnings disappointments and economic data. Let's take a look at the consumer spending data that was released.

The Commerce Department announced that personal spending was unchanged during June, marking the third-straight month that saw "lackluster consumer demand." Incomes were also flat during June, turning in the weakest month in the past nine.

In order for the current U.S. economic recovery to continue, people are going to need to spend. But in April, consumer spending had its weakest showing in the past seven months.

Consumption was flat for the month, despite rising incomes, as consumers opted to stash away their money in savings instead of running out and spending it. The savings rate jumped to 3.6% for the month, up from 3.1% during March.

According to the Commerce Department, consumer spending increased in March by the largest amount in five months.

Consumer spending increased 0.6% in March, which matched expectations. While this is the good news, the bad news is that the gains appear to have been driven by a depletion of savings, which dropped to the lowest level in 18 months. The personal savings rate fell to 2.7% of post-tax incomes, the lowest level since September 2008. Personal incomes increased a mere 0.3%, which presents concern about minuscule income growth.

Many of us seem to be able to spend money very quickly. We like to get out the credit cards and head to the mall. Financially, this is about as healthy for us as eating an entire gallon of Ben & Jerry's ice cream.

Contrary to what most people think it is not necessary to eat every day and good portion of the world fasts on a regular basis. In fasting people abstain from eating solid food and drink only water or juice for a period of time. Some religious and health advocates recommend regular fasting for daylight hours, one day, three days or even up to weeks at a time. Contrary to what you might think you will survive and you will not be as hungry as you think...

Last month Congress increased the debt limit to $12.4 million and with the U.S. debt clock showing the debt at 12.3 million Congress is going to need to act soon and now the Senate wants to raise the limit $14.3 trillion.

Lets break down the numbers:
14.3 trillion proposed debt limit ($14,300,000,000,000)
308.5 million estimated U.S. population (308,500,000)
$46,353 proposed limit per person
$185,413 per family of four

Around the new year, many people set goals to stick to a budget or to manage their money better. It can be hard and sometimes it is only a matter of weeks before they fall back into the bad habits.

No matter how much money you make, at times it seems like it is never enough. People who make $20,000, $50,000 or $100,000 can all be caught in the financial pickle and much of it has to do with how those incomes are managed. Here is a challenge for you to help you watch your spending.

Remember when the Federal Reserve and general public were blasting companies like AIG for going on retreats and holding conferences at luxury resorts? Well, on October 29, it was reported that the Fed has held its conferences at "exotic high-prices locales."

The Washington Post reported on October 28, that the San Francisco Fed hosted a conference at the "spectacular Bacara Resort and Spa" in Santa Barbara, where it paid $300 a night for the rooms -- an off-season price. Perhaps we should be praising the frugal nature of the Fed, as suites can run $2,000 during the peak season. Ben Bernanke attended this conference, which has drawn the ire of some. This conference was followed by a conference held by the Boston Fed at an Inn that charges up to $320 a night for regular rooms and nearly two grand a night for suites.

The U.S. dollar continued to decline today, and has helped push gold prices up sharply in today's action.

The dollar has been very weak lately, and as more concern mounts of the dollar's strength more investors are rushing into the precious metal, which traded up as high as $1,069.70 today, and is currently up $1.70 an ounce to $1,059.20.

Kroger, the nations largest grocery chain, will be reporting its fiscal first quarter earnings tomorrow before the market opens.

The current slowdown in consumer spending has actually played into the hands of Kroger (NYSE: KR). Households have been cutting back on dinners at restaurants, and looking for cheaper ways to feed the family. As a result, grocery sales are up, and for Kroger, its name brand products have also been on the rise.

Mark to market is R.I.P. But that's good news. Sentiment is building in the punditosphere that unemployment has not yet peaked and might not peak until 2010. TechCrunch reports that not a single venture-backed company IPOd in first quarter and M&A transactions were down by half compared to a year ago. Twitter is the next MySpace, according to this post. Too many impostors, follower counting and other sad parallels.

We may need to have a talk with Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) ... a talk about tact and smart spending. Remember last week? You know, when President Obama lowered the hammer of shame on banks that were wasting their money? Perhaps BAC doesn't.

I was going to avoid writing about the Super Bowl today (mainly because I am a Cincinnati Bengals fan that hates the Steelers), but I found a story questioning the thought process of BAC and its sponsorship of the NFL Experience. This traveling exhibit has been a mainstay at the past 18 Super Bowls and it features sports games and interactive entertainment stretched over 850,000 square feet.

We all know the harsh reality of the tough economy we are in. We are dealing with a recession that no one can foresee ending at this point. This morning we got another hint at how bad things are with the release of 2008 construction figures, which showed construction spending in 2008 fell by a new record amount.

The Commerce Department released December construction figures today, which showed spending in December fell for the third month in a row, with a reported 1.4% decline during the month. This was a bit worse than the revised 1.2% decline that analysts had been expecting to see for the month. Previously, the November figure was showing a drop in spending of only 0.6%.

We all know that the current economic slowdown was bound to hurt holiday spending, and today we get news of just how much an impact it had on online shopping, as comScore announced that shoppers spent 3% less this year compared with 2007.

The report was based on spending between November 1 and December 23, and showed that consumers spent $25.5 billion online, compared with $26.3 billion in the same period last year, another clear signal that people are cutting their spending because they are worried about the economy.

A bright spot in the report did show that Cyber Monday, the Monday immediately following Black Friday, was the second biggest day ever for online spending, with an increase of 15% in sales from last year, to $846 million in sales.

If the markets are concerned about the U.S. consumer starting to weaken, we're now seeing global consumers curb their retail spending as well.

Bloomberg reports that Marks & Spencer Group Plc, the U.K.'s largest clothing retailer, dropped severely in London trading this morning off the back of a surprisingly weak holiday sales period.

Bloomberg reported, "Marks and Spencer shares slid as much as 21 percent after Marks said today that revenue fell 2.2 percent at stores open at least a year in the fiscal third quarter ended Dec. 29, the first same-store sales drop in 2 1/2 years. The median estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was for growth of 1.1 percent."

Oof. That's almost a -3.5% surprise to the downside.

"If you are an average person on an average salary in the U.K., you are having a very tough time,'' Chief Executive Officer Stuart Rose said in an interview on Sky television. "About the only thing that isn't going up is the cost of clothing. People are being squeezed.''

Zack Miller the managing editor of IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fund.

I went on a shopping expedition with some friends last night and, like many other shoppers was lured in by a a rack at H&M bearing the following sign: "Buy 1, Get 1 Free" with the usual caveat that the free item must be of equal or lesser value.

I picked out some shirts and stood in line for about 15 minutes while the customer in front of me argued with the cashier about the way she was being charged for her "Buy 1, Get 1 Free" purchases. The cashier patiently explained that, if she really wanted to, she could save some money by paying for everything separately, which would require about nine separate transactions. What?

Here's how it works. Let's say that you buy four items from the "Buy 1, Get 1 Free" sale, with the following prices: