It’s earning season and the rate of insider buying dramatically slows down due to restrictions placed on buying prior to reporting earnings. The following data is not supportive for a large amount of insider buying after the close of the windows. Insiders tend to buy into increasing optimism, not when they expect further declines in sales and additional layoffs. – Ilene 
CEO confidence hits record low
Two-thirds of U.S. chief executives plan additional layoffs and expect sales to decline in the next six months as their confidence in the economy continued to fall, according to a survey released on Tuesday.
The Business Roundtable’s quarterly CEO Economic Outlook Index fell to negative 5 — the first negative reading in the survey’s six-year history — and down from a fourth-quarter reading of 16.5. A reading below 50 means CEOs expect contraction rather than growth.
Still, the group’s head said there are signs the downturn may be reaching its nadir and held out hope that the Obama administration’s efforts to shore up the financial system and buoy the economy with a $787 billion stimulus program may be beginning to pay off…
One hundred U.S. CEOs were polled between March 16 and March 27 said they now expect real U.S. gross domestic product to decline 1.9 percent this year. That is below their December forecast, which anticipated flat GDP…
The majority of CEOs — 71 percent — said they expected to cut their U.S. work forces over the next six months and 66 percent said they expect to reduce capital spending. That came as 67 percent said they expect lower sales over that period.
Businesses still see tough times ahead…
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CEOs see more layoffs; decline in spending, sales
By Tali Arbel, AP Business Writer
An index tracking the outlook of chief executives of some of the country’s biggest companies dropped to its lowest level since the survey began in 2002…
The unemployment rate is already at 8.5 percent, the highest level in more than a quarter century, but 71 percent of those surveyed see more American job losses coming in the next six months.
Two-thirds or more of the chief executives also expected their companies’ sales and capital spending to drop in the next six months.
All the indicators have declined broadly from the CEOs’ forecast in November…
However, even if markets take a turn for the better, an improvement in jobs is still a long ways off, McGraw said. The unemployment rate will likely bottom at 9 or 10 percent next year, according to economists’ projections.
