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Original Source: NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT
PAUL KANGAS, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT ANCHOR: `Twas the day after Thanksgiving and all through the stores shoppers were out early and on the hunt for bargains. The nation`s retailers were mobbed today, but will the buying continue throughout the holiday season?
JEFF YASTINE, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT ANCHOR: Currency traders had a yen for euros today, sending the greenback to a new low against the European common currency. The dollar`s decline came amid thin trading and worries over the growing U.S. deficit. We`ll have the details.
KANGAS: Tonight`s "Market Monitor" says the cyclical bull market is losing some of its momentum. But he also says the gains aren`t over yet. He`s Bernie Schaeffer, chairman of Schaeffer`s Investment Research.
YASTINE: Then, this may look like child`s play, but toys are big business for this Hong Kong entrepreneur. We`ll look at how he`s making a living selling his favorites in stores and on eBay (EBAY).
KANGAS: I`m Paul Kangas.
YASTINE: And I`m Jeff Yastine. Susie Gharib is off tonight. And this is NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT for Friday, November 28.
Good evening, everyone.
With the Thanksgiving turkey now just a leftover, many Americans turned their attention today to shopping. Consumers hit the stores before dawn, hoping to take advantage of special deals on a day that traditionally marks the start of the holiday shopping season.
Scott Gurvey takes a look at how retailers are likely to fare this year.
SCOTT GURVEY, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: The early bird special brought scores of shoppers to stores from Best Buy (BBY) to Wal-Mart (WMT), Penny`s (JCP) top Sears (S) and most in between. Many stores kicked of the official holiday shopping season by opening the doors at 6 a.m. Newspaper ads and inserts touted a limited number of specials, often 50 percent off, designed to get people into the store and into a buying mood. Consumer electronics is expected to be the hottest sector beyond the usual toys this year, with phonics (ph) and prices adults will find hard to resist.
ALAN RIFKIN, SPECIALTY RETAIL ANALYST, LEHMAN BROS.: Never before has there been such a flurry of new and must-have products, whether its DVD players, recordable DVD players, digital cameras, digital camcorders, digital TVs, high-definition TVs. So the whole digitization of America is well under way. And that is going to be one of the hotter products this holiday season.
GURVEY: But it is not all electronics. Retailers across all categories are cautiously optimistic about sales this year. Last year`s 2.2 percent increase was the worst in a decade. This year the National Retail Federation is looking for a 5.7 percent increase, driving overall holiday sales to $217 billion. Many more consumers are expected to let their fingers do the walking this year. Forrester Research expects online sales to jump 42 percent to more than $12 billion. There is, of course, a difference between sales and profits. Stores are hoping to avoid the deep price cuts of recent years. They are keeping inventories lean and advertising heavily in an attempt to get buyers to part with their money sooner rather than later.
CHRISTINE AUGUSTINE, RETAIL ANALYST, BEAR STEARNS: There is a lot of marketing this year. There is a lot of advertising, some of it is very focused. There is a lot of direct mail this year. There is more television advertising. So we think the retailers are really focused on driving traffic to the stores early.
GURVEY: There are 27 more shopping days left until Christmas, and the retailers will keep the books open until the end of the year anyway to catch the after-Christmas sales. So it will be some time before we know if today`s high traffic translates into high sales.
Scott Gurvey, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, New York.
KANGAS: Stocks on Wall Street edged slightly lower during the opening on...
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