U.S. online spending rose 9 percent in Q3: comScore

It was the fourth right quarter of year-over-year growth following the U.S. housekeeping downturn, comScore said.

In the 2009 third quarter, online sales inhuman 2 percent.

ComScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni called the data “a fairly indisputable indicator for the upcoming holiday season,” but he cautioned that continued of great altitude unemployment could crimp consumer spending.

“Until the economy begins adding jobs at a meaningful impost, the lack of spending power among consumers will continue to exist a drag on purchasing, with many consumers indicating their intention to cut back on gift buying this holiday season,” Fulgoni said in a liberate.

The best-performing categories during the quarter were books and magazines, excluding digital downloads, computers and consumer electronics.

Growth in online shopping, what one. makes up just a fraction of the overall retail pie, has outperformed brick-and-cement sales growth during the downturn and the aftermath.

Last month, comScore forecast that e-commerce spending during the holiday season could rise 7 percent to 9 percent on the supposition that unemployment does not worsen.

The National Retail Federation, meanwhile, has look forward to that holiday retail sales, which exclude online sales, will rise 2.3 percent to 7.1 billion.

Online giants Amazon.com and eBay Inc are battling against market share with websites run by brick-and-mortar stalwarts so as Wal-Mart Stores in advance of the holiday season, what one. can account for as much as 40 percent of annual sales.

Tepid putting out in consumer spending has meant more competition, and comScore found that the rise to the ~ of 25 online retailers accounted for 70 percent of dollars spent in the third part quarter.

ComScore said 41 percent of online transactions in the furnish included free shipping, a key perk given by retailers to instil purchases.

(Reporting by Alexandria Sage; editing by John Wallace)

http://www.nathanhamm.unadulterated/news/u-s-online-spending-rose-9-percent-in-q3-comscore/take food/ 0

Mid-America economy staggers amid weak job growth

http://www.nathanhamm.get/news/mid-america-economy-staggers-amid-weak-job-growth/ http://www.nathanhamm.unadulterated/news/mid-america-economy-staggers-amid-weak-job-growth/#comments Tue, 02 Nov 2010 16:11:01 +0000 Nathan Hamm News jointly economy growth MidAmerica staggers weak http://www.nathanhamm.net/news/mid-america-economy-staggers-amid-weak-job-growth/ Creighton University’s Business Conditions Index bloody to 52.3 in October from 56.3 in September. A lecture of 50 is considered growth neutral, while a reading above that signals expanse over the next three to six months. “Since July, the leading … Continue reading →

Creighton University’s Business Conditions Index barbarous to 52.3 in October from 56.3 in September. A prelection of 50 is considered growth neutral, while a reading above that signals expanding over the next three to six months.

“Since July, the governing economic indicator has been trending downward and indicates slower growth in the months against us. Even so, surveys are not pointing to a double dip recession,” afore~ Creighton University Economics Professor Ernie Goss in a statement.

That, nevertheless, could change if the federal income tax cuts that expire at year extremity are not extended by Congress, he said, adding a tax be augmented “could push the fragile regional economy back into recession.”

Meanwhile, the contemplate’s employment index dipped to 50.6 in October from 53.2 in September, pointing to “unconditional, but very weak job growth in the months ahead,” Goss related.

The prices-paid index, which tracks costs of raw materials and supplies, remained in inflationary territory at 69.9 last month, down little from 71.1 in September.

Supply managers were surveyed in Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota.

The Omaha, Nebraska-based Creighton Economic Forecasting Group has conducted the monthly review since 1994, using the same methodology as the National Institute in opposition to Supply Management.

(Reporting by Karen Pierog, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

http://www.nathanhamm.unadulterated/news/mid-america-economy-staggers-amid-weak-job-growth/feed/ 0

Investors slowly wade back into public securities

http://www.nathanhamm.net/news/investors-slowly-wade-back-into-stocks/ http://www.nathanhamm.net/news/investors-slowly-wade-back-into-stocks/#comments Tue, 02 Nov 2010 16:11:00 +0000 Nathan Hamm News back into investors slowly funds wade http://www.nathanhamm.net/news/investors-slowly-wade-back-into-funds / NEW YORK (Reuters) – Top U.S. brokers say wealthy clients are starting to generate back in to higher-risk investments and inch away from depressed-yielding assets that provided a safe haven over the past small in number years. Investors are again investing in … Continue reading →

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Top U.S. brokers maxim wealthy clients are starting to get back in to higher-venture investments and inch away from low-yielding assets that provided a chest haven over the past few years.

Investors are again investing in equities on the model of they bulked up on fixed-income securities and cash to keep out of the way of risk in a sputtering economy, senior financial advisory executives told the Reuters Wealth Management Summit adhering Monday.

“cash allocations are high by any historical standards, and clients hold been slow to recommit to risk assets,” said Robert McCann, prime executive of UBS Wealth Management Americas. “People have been scared; they’ve been shaken to their surpassingly core.”

McCann presented statistics showing that half of investors are in continuance as risk-tolerant as they were six months ago, while 46 percent take become even more conservative.

In early fall, however, some people began expressing good in lower-risk stocks, bankers told the Summit.

“We’ve seen a gradual increase in the comfort level, in terms of exposure to equities,” said George Lewis, Royal Bank of Canada’s asset management chair.

Investors seek out top-rated, blue-chip companies with a global footprint and a dividend yield of 2.5 to 3.5 percent.

Companies auditory these criteria include Intel Corp, Johnson & Johnson and Abbott Laboratories Inc, said Charles Johnston, president of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, the largest U.S. mammon manager.

McCann said he saw a similar trend kicking up. He likewise emphasized companies with a large portion of their revenue generated on the surface the United States. Stocks attracting investors’ attention, he said, contain Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive and Procter & Gamble.

Hoping to detain their affluent lifestyle, wealthy investors have been stocking up on dejected-interest Treasury bills and other fixed-income securities, shielding themselves to counter-poise risk of inflation.

Many also have sat on their cash, staying for the market to improve.

“People are now coming to the realization that currency funds and short-term instruments don’t pay much, granting that anything,” Johnston said. “People are starting to get again focused on that.”

EMERGING MARKETS, DIVERSIFICATION

As the global markets reeled at the pinnacle of the financial crisis, many advisers encouraged investors to look at gold and beloved metals as hedges and safe assets.

“It was the superlatively good performing strategy” at the time, said Maria Elena Lagomasino, principal executive of GenSpring Family Offices, the largest U.S. registered investment adviser and a unit of SunTrust Banks Inc.