Bad news from the company that owns Sound Advice said Thursday it may file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.

Tweeter Home Entertainment Group has nine Sound Advice stores in South Florida - West Palm Beach, Plantation, Pembroke Pines, North Palm Beach, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Coral Gables, Boca Raton and Aventura.

The Canton, Mass.-based company is also the name sponsor on the Sound Advice Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach.

The electronics retailer also reported a red third quarter.

Tweeter (NASDAQ: TWTR - News) said it lost $35.2 million, or $1.38 a share, on revenue of $163.3 million for the for the period ended March 31. For the same period the year before, Tweeter said it earned $424,000, or 2 cents a share, on revenue of $186.8 million.

Tweeter said the loss was worsened by charges of $27.2 million for restructuring and $1.71 million for impairment.

The retailer said last month it planned to slash about 20 percent of its work force and close more than 40 stores in an effort to regroup.

Retailers got a huge boost in March from the early arrival of Easter, but the positive mood was tempered by low sales forecasts for April.

Overall, the sales results paint a mixed picture for retailers’ first-quarter earnings but at the same time don’t signal any surprising weakness in consumer spending, despite rising gasoline prices and the recent meltdown in the subprime mortgage market.

Wal-Mart (Charts), the world’s largest retailer on Thursday reported a 4 percent jump in sales at its stores open at least a year, which is a key measure of retail performance known as same-store sales. That beat analysts’ expectations for a 1.6 percent increase, according to Thomson Financial.

Wal-Mart said Easter-related purchases and strong sales at its pharmacy business - where late last year it rolled out a $4 generic drug plan - boosted spending in its stores. Moreover, due to the calendar, most retailers also included the first week of April in their final tally of March sales.

Analysts said this also contributed to better-than-expected sales results last month. According to Thomson Financial, which tracks numbers from 52 store chains, March same-store sales rose a strong 6 percent versus a 1.8 percent gain in the same month a year ago. The firm had originally expected April same-store sales to rise 4.1 percent.

“This March-April distortion happens every year with Easter. But the 53-week reporting calendar also added to all the noise surrounding March sales,” said Richard Hastings, chief retail analyst with Bernard Sands.

Hastings and other industry experts said it’s better to evaluate retailers’ March and April sales combined for a more accurate picture of consumer spending patterns in the first quarter.

“Forget Easter and the calendar issue. If you really want to know how retailers are doing, go straight to the earnings,” he said.

To that end, the signals are mixed.

Wal-Mart warned on its first quarter, saying that while its profit forecast of 68 to 71 cents a share was still attainable, “given the tough sales environment for the April period, it will be a challenge.” Analysts, on average, expect the retailer to earn 69 cents a share for the quarter.

The discounter also expects April same-store sales to be flat to down 2 percent.

But teen clothing chains Aeropostale and American Eagle Outfitters both upped their first-quarter earnings forecasts.

The retailer said customers took advantage of spring clearance activity at its Gap and Banana Republic stores during the month.

Retail is hoping to bounce back with big Summer results.

Federal Reserve officials stressed on Friday the importance of keeping close watch on inflation expectations as a way to keep inflation in check and keep track of trends in the economy.

The U.S. economy added 97,000 jobs in February, the smallest gain in two years.

The trade deficit narrowed slightly in January as U.S. exports rose to an all-time high while imports dropped, sending a hopeful signal that the country’s trade imbalances may finally start to improve this year.

Strong demand for corn from ethanol plants is driving up the cost of livestock and will raise prices for beef, pork and chicken, the Agriculture Department said Friday.

Employers in the U.S. added 115,000 workers to the payrolls in December, ending a quarter in which job creation was the slowest in three years, according to a survey of economists before a government report last week.

The figure is the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey and would follow employment gains of 132,000 in the prior month and 79,000 in October. The Labor Department’s report on Jan. 5 is also forecast to show the jobless rate held at 4.5 percent, close to a five-year low.

Job growth in early 2007 may continue to be subdued, keeping a lid on wage gains and limiting how fast consumer spending and the economy will grow. So far, increases in payrolls and incomes have been enough to hold the unemployment rate stable and encourage Americans to keep spending and shopping.

Man investors still cling to a buy-and-hold mentality as a backlash against the day-trading debacle of the New Economy days in the late 1990s, that strategy has been alarmingly ineffective in the past five years.  Now the market experts are wondering if the market is on the cusp of another important shift.  During the past five years, more institutional investors have been employing timing models and sector-rotation strategies to benefit from the short-term upswings in the market, as well as raising their investments in hedge funds, according to market sources.  Buy-and-hold has an old-school charm, a conservative voice that sounds wise when speaking of patience.  But that’s because so many people making their living in finance today came of age professionally in the 1980s and 1990s, says James Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management, an investment advisor that caters to institutional investors.   The buy-and-hold method works well in a bull market because the entire market has a general upward trend, so a portfolio manager does not have be particularly good at stock picking to post positive results, Paulsen says.  The market was in a bull run from 1982 to 2000, proving all those buy-and-holders right but with the future looking so uncertain a new spin on this old strategy might be called for in my own personal finance.

Oil surges to new highs while the US jobless rate remains steady at 4.6%.

AMD warns second quarter profits will be less than forecasted because of weak chip sales.

According to published reports, Microsoft (MSFT) is getting close to the roll-out stage of its competitor to Apple’s iPod, which will be capable of downloading songs wirelessly, something that current iPod models don’t do.  The Microsoft device is said to be ready to reach retail shelves for the Chistmas season which is usually the highest selling potion of the year for the computer and electronics industries.

The DJIA is set to open at 11,090.67 Monday morning,  the Nasdaq is set to open at 2,130.06 and S&P 500 at 1,265.48.  the Canadian Market the TSX is set to open at 11,631.91.

Have a great and profitable week!