'Fast Money' Recap: Amazon's Strange Call

The year is ending with no miracle in sight for the retail sector -- except maybe for Amazon.com(AMZN).

In a lightly traded session on Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 47.07, or 0.56%, to 8515.55, while the S&P 500 rose 7.78, or 0.9% to 872.8. The Nasdaq added 5.34, or 0.35%, to 1530.24.

Pete Najarian said today's trading was "thin," with "everyone on the side lines."

Joe Terranova said the significance behind GMAC Financial Services saying it's becoming a bank holding company is that "they are basically telling you they can no longer raise cash" and "can no longer sell bonds backed by auto loans."

Melissa Lee asked Najarian to comment on the volatility of the market, which fell to 43.38 today. Najarian said not to read too much into it because of the light volume.

Lee shifted the discussion to the retail sector and a report from Spending Pulse, a unit from MasterCard Worldwide, of a 2% to 4% drop in retail sales between Nov. 1 and Dec. 24, with weakness showing up in the sales of electronics goods, apparel and luxury items.

Terranova said the takeway from that discouraging report is that consumers are going to spend on two things: food and medicine. Furthermore, he said there will be a rise in personal savings as people hunker down for the recession.

Lee asked the panel to comment on Amazon.com's "curious" press release that it was their "best Christmas ever." She said there were a lot of "black holes" in the report, with no mention of "margins" and "promotional activities."