Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Quick Notes for the Day - November 24

NOTE - Rollins Financial and Rollins & Associates will be closed for the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, November 26 and Friday, November 27. Our office will reopen for business on Monday, November 30.

Retailers' Weekly Sales Rise Versus 2008 - According to a survey by the International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs, chain-store sales for the week ended Nov. 21 rose 3.3% year over year. "So much of the monthly performance rides on bargain Friday shopping--the day after Thanksgiving," said Michael Niemira, ICSC's chief economist, adding he expects sales to be strong on both Friday and Saturday. ICSC also said 15% of households completed half or more of their holiday gift buying by the week before Thanksgiving. Niemira said he believes that November sales will rise 4% to 6% over 2008.

Consumer Confidence Rises - The Conference Board reported that November's confidence index rose to 49.5 versus a revised 48.7 for October. "The moderate improvement in the short-term outlook was the result of a decrease in the percent of consumers expecting business and labor market conditions to worsen," noted Lynn Franco, the Conference Board's director of consumer research.

Q3 GDP Revised to 2.8% - The second estimate of the third quarter GDP came in at 2.8% which was 0.7% lower than the first estimate of 3.5%. The revision was primarily due to downward revisions in consumer spending and business investment in nonresidential structures as well as changes to imports and exports. Final Q3 GDP numbers will be released at the end of December.

S&P Case-Shiller Index Shows Continued Gains - The S&P Case-Shiller report stated that home prices rose 0.3% in September versus August. Year over year, home prices across 20 major metropolitan areas dropped 9.4%. For the third quarter, the S&P Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index was up 3.1% versus the second quarter.

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