Holiday Retail Sales Not as Jolly as Expected

Retail stocks are diving this morning on news that the month of December did not perform as strongly as expected. However, that weakness was offset by a strong November, allowing retailers to celebrate their strongest holiday sales increase since 2006, AP reports. Online spending may eventually brighten the picture, since some retailers don’t include e-commerce in their monthly figures. Americans spent a record amount online this season, jumping 13 percent over 2009.