Dollar Tree Stores (NYSE: DLTR) saw its shares decline Monday after an analyst from JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) said the stock price for the discount retailer is already too high in light of declining consumer spending.

That's all well and good (and somewhat true), but for a retail store "where everything is a dollar," it's hard to see the core customer contingent of Dollar Tree curbing spending for all those $1 items any time soon. In fact, wouldn't logic say that more people may visit Dollar Tree for all those household goods as all those collective belts are being tightened?

Dollar Tree shares lost over 6% based on the analyst's comment, and they now stand at a little over $37 this morning. The downgrade from Neutral to Underweight caused the shares to close just over $35 on Monday, and have since recovered slightly.

The general reasons were given in the downgrade, including the macro economic environment of the U.S. spending scenario at the moment -- particularly for lower-income households (Dollar Tree's core customer) -- as Dollar Tree was mentioned along with discount retailers Family Dollar Stores (NYSE: FDO) and Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT). Will Dollar Tree's $1 pricing model really fall under pressure soon due to so many consumer spending issues? With a 25% stock price rise this year alone, perhaps it is time for the shares to cool off a little. I'm just not convinced we'll see a flock of customers abandon $1 products.

With so many post-holiday deals cropping up now that Christmas 2006 is over (see the "Top5ive Best Post Holiday Deals,"), does it make good financial sense to start shopping now? Unless you are very organized, I'd say no.

I tried advance Christmas shopping two years ago. I bought Santa-themed gifts for 50% off in the weeks after the holidays. Then I put them aside and promptly forgot all about them.

This year I finally managed to give away much of that loot. But the deals I had so excitedly snatched up had long since lost their allure. When I gave them to friends and family, I could hardly remember why or where I made the purchases. What good is giving someone a fancy hand-made Christmas tree ornament if their is no story behind it?

Hilary: great smile, great dimples, and best of all, GREAT calls... (Sorry, I just can't be PC -- not in a blog.)

Hilary Kramer (HK) in her stock blog, HilaryOnStocks, has changed direction and decided to make people money by saving them some money, suggesting it may be time to bail out of certain holdings. Generally speaking, her comments on the 10 stocks she reviewed were very good.

However, I must take exception to the overall principle of trading in and out of stocks because that may not be smart for certain investors. For example, she suggests that Apple may be over, with its long run-up behind it and that taking some profits is in order. I made a similar argument last week.

More in depth review might reveal that if you got in early and live in a high tax state like California you are looking at losing 22% to 24% of your gain to taxes when you add the state tax to the federal capital gains tax and then add up the transaction fees. So while HK is correct that Apple may start moving lower, the question is by how much?

Also, you must consider where you will put the money when you get it. And if you put it in cash or short-term investments, then when will you get back into the market and what will you buy? And you will be putting back 25% less perhaps.

I am not against paying taxes or rotating out of questionable companies, but you must always look at the broad picture as it applies to your own situation.

Here's my take on the 10 stocks she suggests selling:

Home Depot (HD) and KB Homes (KBH): Solid companies and while they my lag for a while, if you got in at the right price they can be good core holdings depending on your personal circumstances.

Carnival Cruise Lines (CCL), Coach (COH), Gap (GPS), General Motors (GM): You don't need to bother with them now.

Apple (AAPL) and Hewlett Packard (HPQ): Big maybes.

Krispy Kreme (KKD) and Jet Blue (JBLU): No reason to own in any market!

Also check out my recent posts: "Dividends are very sexy -- no joke" and "A bad rap for a bad market"

The recently depressed market gave me pause to examine the 'Great Eight' stocks we cover at BloggingStocks. There are no bargains yet, but there are some very interesting developments in their fundamentals:

1) TWX has a very low price-to-book ratio.

2) GE has powerful products to sell -- literally: aircraft and standby power engines, water resource management and equipment. Plus it has a strong dividend.

3) WMT has a very low price-to-sales ratio.

4) GOOG has an extraordinary return on invested capital (ROIC).

Here's my take on all eight stocks: