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Squawkbox market analysis with Mike Tarsala from Thomson Financial Transcript: I'm Mike Tarsala with Thomson Squawk Box, with your weekly On the Radar Report. An art auction this week has many in the market worrying if high-end consumers will significantly tighten their purse strings and sink the economy. Shares in Sotheby's, the art auction house, dropped more than 28 per cent in heavy trading on Thursday, after a disappointing sale of Impressionist and Modern art. It led to several analysts downgrades of the stock. The auction brought in a third of the amount estimated, with a quarter of the works failing to sell. And despite the poor auction, Sotheby's was on the hook for fixed prices it had guaranteed to the sellers. The rising art market has helped Sotheby's shares more than double in the past two years. But it has recently attracted short-sellers who are anticipating that the stock will fall when the art market cools. A lot of traders we know watch these Sotheby's auctions very closely. They offer early signs for the economy as a whole. If the really rich hedge fund billionaires are slowing down their buying, and are worried about the falling dollar, rising commodities and the hangover from bad mortgage debt, it's a really bad sign for those without the millions and billions to spare. The big auctions continue next week, with contemporary and postwar works for sale. If we see more of the same, it could be a canary in the coalmine for the U.S. economy. For Thomson Squawk Box, I'm Mike Tarsala.