IBM's Upbeat Social Sentiment Index for Memorial Day

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For quite some time, the assumption has been that year in, year out, fewer and fewer people would bother seeing movies in the theater. Then a funny thing happened in 2012. Against trend, consumers went back to the movies, in fairly large numbers. What’s more, a repeat performance is expected for 2013. The rise of tablets, home theaters, Redbox, Netflix, and other forms of easy, affordable entertainment that doesn’t involve the cost or hassle of going to the movies has a lot to do with why movie theater attendance had been waning.

For quite some time, the assumption has been that year in, year out, fewer and fewer people would bother seeing movies in the theater. Then a funny thing happened in 2012. Against trend, consumers went back to the movies, in fairly large numbers. What’s more, a repeat performance is expected for 2013. The rise of tablets, home theaters, Redbox, Netflix, and other forms of easy, affordable entertainment that doesn’t involve the cost or hassle of going to the movies has a lot to do with why movie theater attendance had been waning.

Stookle submits:While investors and traders take a break on this Memorial Day long weekend, consumers are expected to indulge in shopping, traveling and/or eating outside. Thus, the “consumer discretionary” industry is likely to benefit. Investors looking to profit from the expected spike in consumer spending should consider the following value stocks.

The state's average gasoline price, though down 5.5 cents from a week earlier, is still higher than during Memorial Day weekend 2008. Analysts say this summer's outlook is difficult to predict.California drivers will pay record gasoline prices over the Memorial Day weekend but could get relief in the weeks ahead — unless more unplanned refinery outages occur.