Cyber Monday – December 1st Already?

And, just like that, the year is almost over...

$6.1Bn worth of on-line sales on Thanksgiving Day (up 8.8%) and another $10.8Bn spent on Black Friday (up 10.2%) gave us record Retail Sales - even though in-store purchases were only up 0.7% from last year (negative accounting for inflation). Overall store traffic was down 3.2% with the Midwest dropping a whopping 7% since last year. Buy Now, Pay Later is driving 10% of store sales and on-line baskets were TWICE the size of in-store bags.

Overall Global Sales hit $74.4Bn this weekend (so far) and that's up 5% overall from last year - better than 3.7% expected. Home Appliances and Furniture did surprisingly well - up 20% from last year, followed by Footwear and Handbags - up 18%. The average discount rates were 28% - 2% more than last year.

Chatbots powered by AI were influential, as bot-driven clicks to retail sites rose by a whopping 1,800% compared to last year, Adobe found. A fifth of those surveyed by Adobe said they used chatbots to find deals, with 19% using them to find items and 15% using them for brand recommendations.

" Digital retailers who are using generative AI and agents in their customer service experiences saw a nine percent higher conversion rate compared to those who are not," Caila Schwartz, director of consumer insights at Salesforce, said in emailed comments. " For an industry that is often concerned with margins, especially ahead of rising costs in 2025, this percent increase is a game-changer."

The shortened period between Black Friday and Christmas this year could particularly impact retailers dependent on holiday shopping. One MidWest company that could be in trouble is Marcus Corporation (MCS), a Theater and Hotel chain with reported decreased foot traffic during Thanksgiving weekend.

The stock has been on a tear since Trump's election (and nice earnings) up 43% for the Magaland Corp but reality is not looking like it's going to justify their now 46x earnings price and they are pushing $150M in debt against their (HOPEFULLY) $18M in earnings next year ($7M loss this year). They don't have very good options to trade (too thin) but I do think it makes a nice short at $22.64.

Speaking of stock picks, we are finalizing our Trade of the Year candidates, which will be officially announced on Wednesday's Money Talk show on Bloomberg, Canada and we'll be running through our list with the Members in today and tomorrow's Live Member Chat Room - join us there!

IN PROGRESS