Black Friday Sales Up 6 Percent Over '05

Hmmmm....

"November 26, 2006, 6:29 pm

Visa Sees Weakness in Department Stores, Apparel
Posted by topeditor

Weekend data from Visa USA, whose credit cards account for 17% of transactions by U.S. shoppers, show that sales at department stores were “not nearly as strong as in previous years,” says Wayne Best, Visa USA’s chief economist. That is likely because big-ticket electronics and appliances stole some of the thunder from apparel sales, he says. And persistently mild weather throughout much of the country hasn’t helped sales of coats, sweaters and other cold-weather gear. It may also be an indication that shoppers are getting savvier, realizing that the best deals on apparel tend to come in the final days before Christmas. – James Covert"
 
Regarding the comments made by retailers and analyst that Door Busters are great, I call bullshit. Yesterday, in my paper, there was an insert flyer for Home Depot.. It said SUNDAY ONLY and was a couple of pages only but on the cover page was a big pic of a LCD TV and it said this:

32" LCD HDTV Built-in HD tuner, 16:9 aspect ratio for widescreen viewing. HDMI inputs to maximize high-definition picture and surround sound performance. 1080i resolution for high-definition viewing...

ONLY $478 !!!!!

( in the picture, I couldn't make out the name of this LCD 32" cause it was in small print but I went to Home Depot as I was going right by it and the first sales person I saw I asked where the TV was and she said something like " Fugettaboutit...they lasted about 10 minutes"..So I asked how many did they have for sale and she said she didn't know....

I ran into others also looking for the tv being told they are sold out and no rain checks..I even asked a guy in the lighting dept about them and he said What TV? lol..

I wonder if they even had any..or more than 1 or 2..

Shopping sucks anyways IMO.
 
One more thing about all these glowing sales figures announced....notice how they never include a percent that they know or expect will be returned??????????

When I was at Home Depot yesterday, the return merchandise lane was longer than any of the check-out lines :(
 
Quote from Handsome:

When I was at Home Depot yesterday, the return merchandise lane was longer than any of the check-out lines :(
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That's always the case after a holiday weekend. And as you pointed out just one return lane and a few check-out lanes.
 
Quote from forex-forex:

Black Friday Sales Up 6 Percent Over '05
Yahoo headline

6% is HUGE, looks like this rally should continue.
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i think that it may have already been priced in...
 
Quote from 5Pillars:

No you missed the point, the market had good retail sales in general (many retailers....not walmart) already priced into the retail sector for this weekend. The retail figures needed to be high just to met the overall expectation.......but the market will tell the truth on Monday. :p

btw, are you buried in some retail stocks you need to get out of this week? :D
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Yes the market told its truth today.....LOL :D
 
Quote from 5Pillars:

Yes the market told its truth today.....LOL :D
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Dewd...You were right; I was wrong. Hats off to ya.

I guess today was a combo of "buy the rumor, sell the news" on the retail data, the dollar getting hit and maybe some political concerns as well.

The Walmart thing in particular threw me. They'd already warned on sales so I didn't think that would be a factor. Well, shit...on to the next.
 
It is not really about being "right" when trying to figure out what news will do what to the market (you were not really wrong about the news.....there was some good retail sales this week with several companies). The "news" is imo many times just a big con game or excuse for what was already planned ahead by commercial trading operations.

My opinion is that the commercials were already showing their intentions of selling several days ago (or at the very least getting prepared for the potential of initial market liquidation). I mean we did have a nice run, and we are close enough to the end of year for fund managers to lock in profits and call it a year. The move by the dollar during the holiday period (timing is interesting...LOL) was the catalyst for the shift in sentiment that locked in weakness for the equities (EU market really sold hard first during the breakout of the Euro).

We have a decent amount of additional economic news releases this week (and GDP on Wednesday) so we can watch how the commercials spin it all for what they probably already have planned. :)
 
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