Retailers' Choice Words Turn Heads
Surprisingly upbeat holiday reports from Yahoo! (YHOO Quote) and Wal-Mart (WMT Quote) were enough to inspire a rally in stocks Wednesday, although some worried the good news was being interpreted too broadly.
Sell-side analysts fueled the fervor by issuing several favorable reports, including one by U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray on Amazon.com (AMZN Quote), which cited strong holiday e-commerce traffic.
Economists closely monitor consumer spending because it makes up two-thirds of U.S. gross domestic product. While overall spending remains sluggish, and discounts continued to prop up sales, the positive comments came amid a general absence of negative ones. At least for a day, it seemed like concerns about a horrible Christmas season might be overblown. ...
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