I did a Google News search on "Christmas sales". Here's what I got

Christmas sales are up in Ireland and Australia, but down in Jamaica. Great Britain seems to be a mixed bag. Normally, in my experience, any generic term Google news search yields about 70-80% US news sources. More than half of the news searches on this key economic indicator are from foreign papers. The first batch of US stories are about regional trends and specialty markets (coffee retail sales look pretty good, but are more focused on cash rather than credit sales). Why aren't American papers covering this?

A little further into the search I got some substance:

Investor's Business Daily (www.investors.com) reports in a feature story that "Durable Goods Plunge Surprise 3.1% In Nov., Worst Since Sept. '02."

Big-ticket orders to U.S. factories took a surprisingly steep fall in November, but new jobless claims last week dipped to the lowest level in nearly three years, two reports showed Wednesday.
Durable goods orders fell 3.1% from October, the Commerce Department said, far worse than the 1% increase expected on Wall Street. The biggest decline since September 2002 wiped out much of October's increase, which was revised up to 4% from 3.4%.

Reuters reports, rather gloomily that "Stores Now Counting on Big After-Christmas Sales."

With only two shopping days left before Christmas, stores are counting on big after-Christmas crowds and piles of plastic gift cards to prop up lackluster sales. But that may be too late for earnings because shoppers will be looking for steep, profit-squeezing discounts, analysts said.
Many analysts have already downgraded their profit forecasts, particularly for lower-end department stores and discounters where holiday sales have not met expectations. The companies themselves may give gloomy profit outlooks when they report December sales early next month.
Merrill Lynch said Tuesday that analyst Dan Barry trimmed his earnings estimates for Kohl's Corp. (KSS), J.C. Penney Co. Inc. (JCP), Sears, Roebuck and Co. (S) and Target Corp. (TGT).

In another Reuters story updates that with news that the "World's largest retailer says December sales only at low end of forecast despite last-minute surge."

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Friday reported a surge in last-minute holiday shopping in the two days before Christmas, but said it still expects to reach only the low end of its December sales forecast.
"We did see improvements in the last shopping days, but not enough to meet our original plan," Wal-Mart said on a recorded message, updating sales through Christmas Eve.

I can't say that I like this all that much. I honestly don't give a shit that this hurts Bush. If the economy doesn't pick up, people are gonna start losing their jobs again. This does nothing but suck.

High end stores doing well (surprise surprise, Smirky's friends are still rich). Mid priced stores hit hard (middle class slip sliding away) and low end stores flat to lower (poor getting poorer).

Don't need rocket science to determine that Smirk's policies are "working"....just like he wants them to.

The overall sales increase for november was 3.2 percent, the right-wingers predicted
6 to 7 percent increases. Overall forecasts were 5.7% for the 2003 holiday shopping season.

Larry Kudlow (CNBC Bush Water Boy) predicted a 6 to 7 percent increase in sales for november.
He also predicted the economy would add 200,000 jobs in November. This guy should not quit
his day job. The sales increase was 3.2 percent for november, and the economy only added
57,000 jobs for november. Kudlow was 2 for 2, he was dead wrong on both predictions.

Wal-Mart and Target are doing ok, but sales are lower than projected. Wal-Mart only had a 3.9
percent increase for the month of november.

The department stores like JC Penny, Sears etc. had a 1.1 percent dip in sales for november.

The upscale stores are doing great, in november Neiman Marcus gained 5.8%, Nordstrom
rose 7.4%, and Saks Fifth Avenue surged 11.3%.

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Retailers say start of season not jolly

12-4-03 -

November sales at stores open at least a year, a key measure of growth, were up a modest
3.2%, show data from retailers released Thursday by sales-tracker Redbook.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2003-12-04-retail-sales_x.htm

dropped from the unemployment roles people.

BTW, have you ever tried to find a job in January, February, and March?

Soon all those credit card bills will come. How many will have to default?