By all accounts, the holiday season appears to be off to a robust start, with lines longer and carts fuller than a year ago, but a key question remains: What will happen after the holiday madness fades?   Read More

Hope for a much anticipated economic recovery is boosting Americans' optimism about this holiday shopping season.  Here is a look at 8 stocks that could gain from this trend.     Read More

Denim sales will likely continue their upward trend this holiday season, as consumers slowly start spending on themselves and redeem gift cards on the latest jeans trends.    Read More

Shares of teen apparel retailers are getting hit particularly hard Thursday in the wake of October same-store sales results. It's not surprising. This sector is facing some tough challenges. Teen unemployment has been at historically high levels. This means teens have less money to spend on jeans and T-shirts.    Read More

Chartologists, including Greg Troccoli, are seeing a head-and-shoulders formation taking hold on the S&P today. Is it signaling a market reversal?   Read More

October retail sales generally positive, not as robust as last month, but we don't have the back to school stimulus that we had last month.    Read More

Now that September retail numbers are behind us, Brian Tunick at J.P. Morgan is looking at October, and beyond. For one thing, he says 45 percent of teenagers say the whole vampire thing is "getting a little played out". Well, sort of. More on that in a moment.    Read More

Commodities and commodity stocks higher pre-open on Alcoa earnings. While Alcoa is getting all the attention, Australia is again helping Asian markets due to a much better than expected jobs report there...Australia reported an increase of 40,600 jobs in August versus a forecast of a drop of 10,000 jobs.    Read More

As of 9:12 this morning, 100% of retailers tracked by Thomson Reuters have reported same store sales.  Here is a breakdown of where things stand.   Read More

The SPDR S&P Retail has gained about 6% over the past month. As we head into same-store sales data, what should you expect when the numbers are released, Thursday?   Read More