MasterCard Advisors says that holiday spending is growing at about half of last year's 8% increase. The news is not exactly a bright spot for companies like Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT), Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT), or Federated. They need a sharp uptick to drive earnings. Wal-Mart especially needs a jolt.
Online sales growth is also slowing. The rate of increase has been over 20% in years past but Reuters quotes a SpendingPulse executive as saying "this year they're in the teens." This would seem to contradict data from ComScore that shows online spending up about 25% for the holidays.
If the MasterCard data is right, a lot of retailers are going to have rough fourth quarters.
Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.
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