U.S. Retail Sales Fall Short

U.S. retail sales fell short of predictions after netting out gas price increases, according to data released by MasterCard. Total U.S. retail sales were up 3.6% from a year ago for the holiday season, which begins the day after Thanksgiving and ends midnight Dec. 24, but just 2.4% net of gas prices. Forecasts were for a retail sales gain of 3.5% to 4.5%.

Internet retailers were a standout with a 22.4% gain. Luxury retailers, not including jewelry, saw sales rise 7.1%. But they fell 1.9% including jewelry, which retailers said sold poorly (see: Online Sales Grow, But Luxury Items Suffer). Women's clothing sales fell 2.4%, while menswear sales were increased 2.3%. Electronics sales were up 2.7%, but that includes appliances whose weak sales likely dragged down surging sales of game consoles and software, DVDs and flat-panel TVs.

MasterCard's Michael McNamara says post-holiday sales, which have grown steadily in recent years, will likely be strong due to promotions and gift-card redemptions. "This last week of December, I wouldn't be surprised if we see upwards of $60 billion spent," he said. "There's still some work to be done on the retail front here."

Retail ETFs Consumer Discretionary SPDR ETF (XLY), Retail HOLDRS ETF (RTH) and ST SPDR RETAIL ETF (XRT), among others (see: Retail and Consumer Goods & Services ETFs) offer U.S. investors broad retail exposure.

Sources: Wall Street Journal
Additional Reading: Christmas Eve Retail Post-Mortem • No Christmas Cheer For Retail Stocks

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Comments

[Long-Short Guy:]

These numbers look a lot worse when you adjust for inflation.

2007 Dec 25 04:53 PM

[floridadon:]

What one person sees as a negative, another sees as a positive.

2007 Dec 26 11:21 AM

[firboy4:]

Having been in retail for many years in the past, I would say these numbers are dismal.

2007 Dec 26 01:49 PM

[Beloved War...:]

Nobody is buying electornics at Best Buy or expensive gaming systems this year. Want to know why? Because everyone is spending their money on guns and ammo! Just do a google search on ammo and you will see that most sites are out of stock and cant keep it in stock. It took me one hour in line the other week just to enter a gun show in NC! Gun and ammo sales rose 70% after this years election and its because nobody trusts Barack Obama and his Liberal Fascists! Do yourselves a big favor for Christmas this year....buy an assault weapon!! I DID!!

2008 Dec 25 01:44 AM