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Consumers put aside worries about slumping home sales and soaring gasoline prices and headed to the malls last month, pushing spending up by the largest amount in 3½ years. The better-than-expected surge lessened fears of an imminent recession. The Commerce Department reported yesterday that consumer spending shot up 1.1 percent last month, nearly triple October's gain. It was the biggest one-month jump since a 1.2 percent rise in May 2004 and was significantly higher than the 0.7 percent gain analysts had expected. Incomes were also up last month, but the 0.4 percent increase was far below the rise in spending....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Consumers put aside worries about slumping home sales and soaring gasoline prices and headed to the malls in November, pushing spending up by the largest amount in 3 1/2 years. The Commerce Department reported Friday that consumer spending surged by 1.1 percent last month, nearly triple the October gain. The gain reflected various promotional efforts by retailers such as heavy discounting and longer store hours at the start of the holiday shopping season....

Stocks opened higher Friday following a better-than-expected rise in profits at Research in Motion Ltd. and on word that Merrill Lynch might have lined up a big cash infusion from a Singapore fund. Research in Motion said late Thursday its fiscal third-quarter profit more than doubled on strong demand for its BlackBerry smart phones. The results gave Wall Street hope that the technology sector has further to climb and that consumers and businesses are still spending.

Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez today released the following statement on the revised third quarter real gross domestic product (GDP) report, which showed that the American economy grew at 4.9 percent in the third quarter of 2007, the highest rate of GDP growth in four years: “In the face of real challenges, our resilient economy has now experienced six years of uninterrupted growth. As the holiday shopping season begins, I am pleased with today’s strong GDP report, coupled with the 1.68 million jobs added over the past year and low unemployment. President Bush’s pro-growth policies are moving our economy forward....

Employers Boost Payrolls by 94,000; Jobless Rate Holds Steady at 4.7 Percent WASHINGTON (AP) -- Employers added a solid 94,000 jobs to their payrolls in November, the unemployment rate held steady at 4.7 percent and wages grew briskly, encouraging signs the nation's employment climate is holding up in the face of turbulence in the housing and credit markets. The fresh snapshot of the labor market, released by the Labor Department on Friday, showed that hiring was brisk in education and health services, retail, professional services, the government and elsewhere. That helped to offset job losses in construction, manufacturing and financial...

Business Leaders Feel Pretty Good About Economy's Prospects Despite Housing, Credit Woes WASHINGTON (AP) -- The country's top corporate executives foresee pretty good business prospects even as the economy gets squeezed by a housing collapse, a credit crunch, Wall Street turmoil and high energy prices. A survey by the Business Roundtable, released Tuesday, showed that most executives expect sales, capital investment and hiring to remain at current levels or even improve in the coming months. While the economy's problems have caused consumer confidence to tank, the survey's results suggest that corporate executives' assessment is that the business climate remains generally...

Economy Grew 4.9% in 3rd Quarter, Up From Previous Estimate of 3.9% By JEFF BATER November 29, 2007 9:06 a.m. WASHINGTON -- The U.S. economy soared last summer, growing at a rate much stronger than earlier estimated, but the earnings of companies were flat, the government reported Thursday. Gross domestic product rose at a 4.9% annual rate July through September, the fastest quarterly pace since 7.5% in third-quarter 2003, the Commerce Department said. The new, 4.9% estimate for third-quarter 2007 GDP reflected a revision up from a previously reported 3.9% increase. Higher inventories and exports were behind the government's revision...

The Dow closed with its best two-day performance since 2002, as stocks urged more than 331 points on Wednesday on hopes of another interest rate cut. Today's Markets The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 331.01 points, or 2.55% to 13289.45, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index picked up 40.79 points, or 2.86% to 1469.02 and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 82.11, or 3.18%, to 2662.91. The consumer-friendly Fox 50 gained 27.15, or 2.62%, to 1062.18. The three major indexes closed more than 2% higher, building on Tuesday's 215 point rally on the Dow. This is the first time that stocks...

Retailers cheer initial holiday sales Research group and Penney both say weekend results have started off strong. The nation's retailers had a robust start to the holiday shopping season, according to results announced Saturday by a national research group that tracks sales at retail outlets across the country. According to ShopperTrak RCT Corp., which tracks sales at more than 50,000 retail outlets, total sales rose 8.3 percent to about $10.3 billion on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving... http://money.cnn.com/2007/11/24/news/economy/bc.holidayshopping.ap/index.htm?postversion=2007112417

China up over 4%, Japan up 2.4%. Pretty sure this was unexpected, looks like retail sales during the w/e were much higher than expected, up about 8%, with online purchases up 22%. Back to the Bull!

NEW YORK (AP) - The nation's retailers had a robust start to the holiday shopping season, according to results announced Saturday by a national research group that tracks sales at retail outlets across the country. According to ShopperTrak RCT Corp., which tracks sales at more than 50,000 retail outlets, total sales rose 8.3 percent to about $10.3 billion on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, compared with $9.5 billion on the same day a year ago. ShopperTrak had expected an increase of no more than 4 percent to 5 percent. "This is a really strong number. ... You can't have a...

BENTONVILLE, Ark. - A year after its worst holiday sales season ever, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. may rebound to have a good season after finding the right mix of merchandise and marketing to complement its return to a focus on low prices. A whiff of this already showed up when the nation's largest retailer posted third-quarter earnings Tuesday of $2.86 billion, an 8 percent rise that beat Wall Street expectations. The company earned 70 cents per share, up from 62 cents per share in the same period a year ago. The 70 cents includes an after-tax gain equal to 1 cent...

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said yesterday the dollar remains the world's reserve currency and while its decline is raising oil prices and a threat of inflation, he doesn't expect it to seriously crimp the economy or consumer spending power. Continues...================================================================= Has anyone seen my Recession? If this "very bad" booming economy doesn't tank soon, liberals will all be on suicide watch, poor dears. A survey by the World Economic Forum ranked America's economy No. 1 for competitiveness and innovation, so liberals respond by moping about the subprime nonsense. These same liberal ninnies claimed the Soviet Union would bury...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Worker productivity surged in the summer at the fastest pace in four years while wage pressures eased. The Labor Department reported that productivity -- the amount of output per hour of work -- jumped at an annual rate of 4.9 percent in the July-September quarter. That was double the 2.2 percent rise in the second quarter and represented the fastest surge in worker efficiency since 2003. At the same time, wage pressures eased with unit labor costs dropping at an annual rate of 0.2 percent, the best showing in more than a year. Both outcomes were far...

Economy: It seems no matter how bad the news gets, the economy keeps outperforming expectations. Like the Terminator in the movie of the same name, it takes a tremendous beating but moves inexorably forward.Friday's employment report, showing a much-higher-than-expected increase of 166,000 in nonfarm payroll jobs, was only the latest in a spate of remarkable reports showing the economy's stunning resilience. Earlier this week, we discovered that, contrary to fears and forecasts of much slower growth in the third quarter, the U.S. economy in fact expanded at a 3.9% rate — even in the midst of a vicious housing downturn,...

If things are so bad, why are they so good? With all the gloom coming out of Wall Street, the Democrats on the campaign trail and the mainstream media, a remarkable thing just happened: Real gross domestic product, the best summary report of the American economy, came in at a breathtaking 3.9% annual rate for the third quarter. In fact, following the 3.8% growth rate for the second quarter, the U.S. economy has posted its strongest quarterly growth in four years. The economy actually appears to be speeding up, following the relatively sluggish performance of the prior 18 months. On...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The economy picked up speed in the summer, growing at a brisk 3.9 percent pace, the fastest in 1 1/2 years and an impressive performance even as a credit crunch plunged the housing market deeper into turmoil. The latest snapshot of the country's economic health, released by the Commerce Department on Wednesday, suggested that the economy is demonstrating much resilience and thus far holding up well to the strains in the housing and credit markets, which had intensified during the third quarter and rocked Wall Street. Individuals ratcheted up their spending. U.S. businesses sold more goods abroad...

WASHINGTON - Retail sales posted a stronger-than-expected gain in September as a big jump in auto sales helped offset weak demand for clothing. The Commerce Department reported Friday that retail sales increased 0.6 percent September, compared to August. That was double the gain that economists had been expecting and was also in contrast to reports Thursday of sluggish demand from the nation's leading retail chains. The government data did show weakness at department stores and specialty clothing shops, where unusually warm weather dampened demand for fall clothing. In other news, the Labor Department reported that wholesale prices jumped by 1.1...

Despite recent financial turmoil and a dismal housing market, there are key reasons why the economy will continue to expand, albeit at a modest pace, and not go into recession. Businesses are well poised to absorb a period of weaker product demand and are unlikely to significantly alter their hiring and investment behavior. Consumer spending is supported by rising incomes. Exports are strong. And monetary policy is consistent with sustained growth... Strong U.S. exports and less reliance on imports, reflecting healthy economies overseas and the weaker U.S. dollar, are boosting production and job creation here. During the housing boom years...