Many U.S. retailers are hoping to put the fall quarter behind them. The decisive outcome of this month\u2019s presidential election, which showed a GOP sweep, seems to be giving them the fuel to do so. <\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Best Buy reported one of its worst three-month stretches of the past decade, something CEO Corie Barry blamed in part on the \u2018distraction\u2019 of the presidential contest, alongside an overall more uncertain macroeconomic environment. <\/p>\n
But she said the company has begun to see holiday sales momentum now that the vote is over \u2014 with particular demand for computers, tablets and sales in its services department.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe continue to see a consumer who is seeking value and sales events, and one who is also willing to spend on high price-point products when they need to or when there is new, compelling technology,\u201d Barry said in a release. <\/p>\n
Best Buy\u2019s latest results \u2014 representing its worst quarterly profit \u2018miss\u2019 of estimates in more than a decade \u2014 capture the uncertain environment most retailers are experiencing. <\/p>\n
While consumers are still grappling with higher prices on everyday items and groceries, surveys and commentary suggest any uncertainty brought about by the election has lifted over the past couple of weeks.<\/p>\n
Gallup\u2019s monthly Economic Confidence Index survey saw a nine-point jump this month compared with October. Although the report still shows most Americans believe economic conditions are \u2018getting worse\u2019 overall, the current reading of -17 is the best since a -12 reading in August 2021.<\/p>\n
The improvement was driven by a six-percentage-point drop in \u2018poor\u2019 ratings, while 36% of survey respondents said the economy is getting better, compared with 32%% in October. Overall, 55% said it\u2019s getting worse \u2014 down from 62% last month.<\/p>\n
Gallup\u2019s survey was conducted between Nov. 6 and Nov. 20. <\/p>\n
The index\u2019s improvements were heavily partisan: Republicans\u2019 scoring of the economy soared 29 points during the survey period, while Democrats\u2019 dropped 10 points \u2014\u00a0though notably, Democrats still hold a net positive rating of the economy compared with both Republicans and independents.<\/p>\n
A separate monthly consumer-confidence report released Tuesday also surged to its highest level in nearly 18 months, with optimism about family finances over the next six months hitting a new all-time high. <\/p>\n
The widely followed survey from The Conference Board, a business nonprofit, also saw the lowest proportion of consumers anticipating a recession in more than two years, while inflation expectations fell to\u00a0the lowest measure since March 2020. Job availability expectations, meanwhile, reached their highest level in almost three years.<\/p>\n
Among those expecting stronger holiday sales Tuesday was Abercrombie & Fitch, which continues to see a sales renaissance. The trendy apparel chain now expects holiday quarter sales growth of 5% to 7%, ahead of the 4.8% growth that analysts had expected, CNBC reported. It also lifted its sales growth guidance for the full year.<\/p>\n
Burlington likewise noted a strong start to holiday sales in a Tuesday earnings release, with the outerwear retailer stating it was \u2018optimistic\u2019 about its prospects for the upcoming quarter, while maintaining a \u2018cautious\u2019 outlook overall. <\/p>\n
The sunnier if still cautious outlook is resonating on Wall Street: According to CNBC, a retail-focused stock-tracker traded on the New York Stock Exchange is up 10% month to date and is heading for its best month since February.<\/p>\n
Last week, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve announced its quarterly survey of dozens of economic forecasters now showed the U.S. economy expanding at an annual rate of 2.2% in the coming three months, and 1.9% in the first quarter of 2025. That\u2019s up from the predictions of 1.7 percent in the last survey.<\/p>\n
\u2018The near-term outlook for the U.S. economy looks better now than it did three months ago,\u2019 it said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Many U.S. retailers are hoping to put the fall quarter behind them. The decisive outcome of this month\u2019s presidential election, which showed a GOP sweep, seems to be giving them the fuel to do so. On Tuesday, Best Buy reported one of its worst three-month stretches of the past decade, something CEO Corie Barry blamed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":12693,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}