ajtj99's Market Pulse

[mjk]

Wal-Mart conflicting with other retailers...I saw this morning on the news early estimates are for a 10% gain this year over last for the weekend after Thanksgiving.

http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7B0C317F1D%2DB5CA%2D47CD%2DA6A8%2DDC77CBFB9DF7%7D&am...

Retailers start tallying holiday sales
Visa purchases up 15.5%; ShopperTrak sees 10.8% gain
By Carla Mozee, CBS MarketWatch
Last Update: 5:47 PM ET Nov. 27, 2004

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- Retail analysts were busy as elves Saturday, crunching the numbers and tallying sales from the after-Thanksgiving rush that kicks off the holiday shopping season.

Shoppers across the country hit the stores on Friday, rushing to get deals on popular items like DVD players, flat-screen TVs, iPods and, of course, toys.

In an early sign that buying will be strong this year, Visa USA said Saturday that the total of its credit and debit card transactions was more than $4.1 billion, up 15.5 percent from the same day last year.

In breaking out its numbers, Visa said discount and drug store buys rose 20.9 percent, department store and apparel buys rose 15.7 percent, and home and garden transactions were up 15.6 percent. Purchases at specialty retail, gift and hobby stores were flat with year-ago numbers. Visa said its 450 million cards account for about 14 percent of total purchases.

ShopperTrak RCT, which measures store traffic for clients, said it saw a 10.8 percent rise in its national retail sales estimate from the same Friday of 2003. Sales were estimated at $8 billion.

Bill Martin, co-founder of ShopperTrak, called the roughly 11 percent jump in its sales estimate "eye-popping". He said combined with last year's 10 percent jump in sales, "Black Friday" -- when retailers can see results go into the black -- is emerging as the busiest retail day of the year. Listen to interview with Martin