Joseph Carlson: Everyone Was Wrong About Black Friday
The holiday season is afoot. And despite some concerns about a potential slowdown in spending for the holidays, the numbers look good so far. Retailers reported a strong Black Friday. And online sales set a new record over Thanksgiving weekend.
That could be a sign that the economy is holding up better than expected. Or at least that consumers aren’t going to cut back this holiday season.
Even online outlets like Amazon (AMZN) were posting record numbers, including 1,000 sales per second.
These strong sales numbers bode well for the economy, and the stock market. That’s especially true for retail stocks which have been beaten down heavily this year.
However, it could also be a sign that the economy remains too strong. For the past 20 months, the Federal Reserve has been moving to tighten conditions and slow the economy to curb inflation.
This could play right into the “higher for longer” trend of interest rates that the central bank has warned could happen.
For now, traders and investors can likely see retail stocks make up for some of their losses going into January. And without any fear from the retail space, it’s likely that the rest of the stock market should be on track for a rally in the final wells of the year as well.
