Cosmetic surgery seen as a sign of recovery

NEW YORK?— Cosmetic surgeries in the United States last year rose to their highest level since the start of the financial crisis, providing traders with another measure to gauge the economic recovery.

While nose jobs and breast augmentations may never replace U.S. unemployment data or retail sales as economic indicators, investors pay attention.

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"Traders will look at all kinds of things. Handbag sales, how things are going at Tiffany's, where people are going on vacation. This is another anecdote for them that helps confirm things are slowly picking up," said Dennis Gartman, publisher of The Gartman Letter investment commentary.

Cosmetic surgeries rose 5 percent last year to 13.1 million procedures after falling in 2008 and 2009, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons said in its annual report this week.

Breast augmentation (296,000) and nose reshaping (252,000) were the most popular, followed by eyelid surgery (209,000), liposuction (203,000) and the tummy tuck (116,000).

Some Wall Street traders said the report was a sign that consumer confidence and spending on "big ticket" items was on the way back even though U.S. unemployment remained above 9 percent.

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Phil Haeck, a medical doctor and president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, said there was pent-up demand for cosmetic procedures now that the economy is improving and credit is easier to acquire.

"The pre-crisis trend of paying for a $6,000 to $7,000 breast augmentation operation on your credit card definitely changed in 2008 and 2009," Haeck said. "Now many people have paid down their debts and have enough confidence in the economy to pay for operations again."

Spending on plastic surgery in the United States fell 3 percent from 2008 to 2009 but still exceeded $10 billion. Haeck said that number will have grown in 2010, though the total number of operations is still below the peak in 2007.

Carl Larry, president of Oil Outlooks & Opinions LLC, said traders will use any piece of data that can give them an edge.

"I like the thinking," Larry said. "It could very well be that we're seeing more 'off-road' spending like this. Anything that is a big ticket item that has little to do with homes or retail is where the money seems to be going."

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