Black Friday is an important shopping day and an indicator of how retail stores and their exchange traded funds might be affected by holiday sales. ShopperTrak, a research group, said sales on Black Friday rose 8.3% on the year, with sales totaling $10.3 billion, reports Abby Deveney of MarketWatch. Consumers seemed willing to spend despite rising oil prices and concerns over the economy and credit crunch. Friday’s spending does not mean retailers have nothing to worry about, but it does give them a sigh of relief. Sales on Black Friday tend to make up about 5% of holiday sales. Online shopping continues to grow, as Shopping.com’s traffic to merchants increased 61% over last year’s Black Friday.
As retailers watch for continued consumer spending through the holidays, so too will investors watch consumer related ETFs, such as:
- SPDR S&P Retail (XRT), down 14.4% year-to-date.
- PowerShares Dynamic Retail (PMR), down 18.6% year-to-date.
- Retail HOLDRs (RTH), down 5.1% year-to-date.
The opinions and forecasts expressed herein are solely those of Tom Lydon, and may not actually come to pass. Information on this site should not be used or construed as an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation for any product.