Retailers Expected to Report Best December Since 2006

Confident consumers continued to spend up until the end of the year, putting some retailers on track to post their best same-store sales for the month of December in four years, MarketWatch reports. Retailers are expected to report final numbers on Thursday for the busiest month of the year, but already some retailers, like Barnes & Noble, have reported preliminary holiday results, revealing that spending was up 9.7 percent. Overall, research firm Retail Metrics is expecting December sales at stores open at least a year to jump 3.4 percent compared to last year.