American markets were relatively quiet during
Thanksgiving week but there were fireworks in China’s markets.
Late in the week, media outlets reported the
China Securities Regulatory Commission was conducting inquiries into several securities
firms as part of an anti-corruption crackdown triggered by last summer’s wild
market gyrations. The news sizzled through China’s stock markets. The Financial Times wrote:
“It's like a trip down memory lane… if memory
lane was vertical… The Shanghai Composite was down by as much as 6.1 percent in
late trade, with the tech-focused Shenzhen Composite following suit, down by as
much as 6.8 percent. It would be Shanghai's biggest one-day fall since August
25, when the benchmark slumped by 7.7 percent, writes Peter Wells in Hong
Kong.”
U.S. markets were sanguine, in part, because
there was little activity on Friday, according to The Wall Street Journal. It also may have something to do with an
upward revision in third quarter’s gross domestic product (GDP), which measures
the value of all goods and services produced in the United States. On Tuesday,
the U.S. Commerce Department reported GDP increased at an annual rate of 2.1
percent during the third quarter, an improvement over the initial estimate of
1.5 percent.
Next week may be a doozy. The European
Central Bank is expected to introduce additional monetary easing measures, while
the U.S. Federal Reserve provides additional clues about the timing of its monetary
tightening measures, said The Wall Street
Journal. We’ll also get news about U.S. home sales, automobile sales, chain
store sales, factory orders, and employment. It’s likely to be an interesting
week.
it seems that shopping has joined food, football, and
family as a favorite
pastime on Thanksgiving Day.
Did you log on
and do a little holiday shopping last Thursday while your holiday feast was
cooking? If so, you are not alone. MarketWatch
reported consumers spent $1.1 billion between midnight and 5:00 p.m. eastern
time on Thanksgiving Day. That was a 22 percent increase over the year before.
After taking
a break to give thanks, gorge on Thanksgiving delicacies, and enjoy family
time, consumers fired up their devices again – more than one-third of sales
were made via smart phone or tablet – for round two in the online shopping arena.
On Friday, between midnight and 11:00 a.m. eastern time, they spent another
$822 million. That’s 15 percent more than last year. In total, Black Friday
sales were expected to be about $2.6 billion.
By Friday
morning, out-of-stock rates were reported to be double the level they normally
reach this time of year. So, prepare for the possibility shoppers may be rabidly
seeking more than one extremely popular gift item as we head deeper into the
holiday shopping season.
That’s a
more welcome turn of events than 1953’s glut of unsold turkeys. The Fiscal Times reported Swanson got
started in the frozen dinner manufacturing business when it finished
Thanksgiving with 260 tons of extra turkeys. Its solution was to package sliced
turkey with trimmings on aluminum trays. In 1954, the company sold 10 million
frozen turkey dinners and a new industry was born.
Since
investors were concerned about weaker than expected retail sales just a couple
of weeks ago, if retail spending continues to be strong in coming weeks, it could
affect investors’ confidence and outlook.
Weekly
Focus – Think About It
“My first rule of consumerism is never to buy
anything you can’t make your children carry.”
--Bill Bryson,
American author
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