For those of us who predict stuff for a living, this is one of those lovely moments in economics when we know for a fact that only one of two things will happen in the near future. We now know one thing for a fact… that in the first third of the second quarter of 2009, American retailers paid more and sold less, both by price and by unit. Simple arithmetic tells you that this means lower profits.

With the economy eroding at an alarming pace, it is no wonder investors are turning away from their former retail haunts filled with trendy, over-priced items.

Stores like Whole Foods (NASDAQ:WFMI) and Trader Joes are watching their customers head to low-cost competitors like Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) and Safeway (NYSE:SWY).

It is no surprise to see an ultra-cheap retailer like 99 Cents Only Stores (NYSE:NDN) climb its way to the sole spot on the list of companies reaching 52-week highs today. The global economic crisis has actually been the best thing to happen to the company’s share price in a long time.

The rationale behind the positive run is obvious. When the economy is in the gutter, consumers have less money to spend on the things…

After an early morning sell-off the resource-rich Canadian markets rallied hard but the junior bourse still ended the session in the red during Wednesday trading. For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange added 1.10%, while the TSX Gold Index dropped 2.1% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, fell a modest 0.06% with the declining issuers continuing to swamp the advancers, this time by a 580 to 394 margin on volume of 138 million shares traded.

It was a good day for shareholders of Noble Metal Group (NMG) after the company’s subsidiary has entered into an exploration agreement with Cougar Minerals for the exploration of Noble’s 37,980 hectares of oil shale exploration permitted lands near Hudson Bay,…