ULTA - Holiday sales look strong but retail stocks slump amid Powell-Omicron double whammy

The National Retail Federation says nearly 180M Americans shopped during the five-day holiday shopping period from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday. The figure compares with 186.4M shoppers in 2020 and is in line with the average of the last four years. As retailers continue to extend deals and other offers into October and early November, close to half of shoppers said they took advantage of early holiday sales or promotions before Thanksgiving this year. Most weekend shoppers felt the deals were the same or better than last Thanksgiving. Of course, more people shopped in stores this year with foot traffic up to 104.9M shoppers from 92.3M in 2020. Thanksgiving weekend shoppers spent an average of $301.27 on holiday-related purchases such as gifts, décor, apparel and toys, which is down slightly from $311.75 in 2020. Top gift purchases over the weekend included clothing and accessories (bought by 51% of those surveyed),

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Holiday sales look strong but retail stocks slump amid Powell-Omicron double whammy