Retail Sales Spark Rally
Consumers snapped up bargains over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and investors in turn snapped up stocks Monday morning. The major averages all climbed about 3% in early trading.
The rally was broad based, as almost 95% of U.S. stocks were in positive territory.
Record numbers of shoppers spent billions of dollars in stores and online over the weekend. The National Retail Federation said overall sales soared more than 16% over the weekend. Moderate weather helped, too. It was the warmest Black Friday in five years, with the least snowfall since 1999.
The spotlight now shifts to Cyber Monday, the biggest online shopping day of the year.
Elsewhere, new single-family home sales rose in October. And the supply of homes on the market fell to its lowest level since April of last year.
Bottom line: Investors celebrated a successful weekend of shopping with a big rally Monday morning.
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