Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Technical analysis for shorts & longs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Johnny Canuck who wrote (42767)	11/3/2005 10:31:29 AM
From: Johnny Canuck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 69762

Holidays not quite as bright One-third of consumers to spend less this holiday season By Andrea Coombes, MarketWatch Last Update: 10:17 AM ET Nov. 3, 2005 Disable MW live quotes \| E-mail it \| Print \| Alert \| Reprint \| SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- About one-third of consumers say they'll spend less this holiday season, and a small portion even say they'll resist putting up Christmas lights to save money, according to the latest Experian-Gallup Personal Credit Index. MARKETWATCH PERSONAL FINANCE IN INVESTING Lions Gate cuts in on Hollywood biggies IN MUTUAL FUNDS Fund investors suffer October surprise as stocks swoon IN LIFE & MONEY One-third of consumers to cut back on holiday spending IN RETIREMENT Some planners advise taking Social Security at age 70 IN REAL ESTATE Earnings misses, Mills warning hit REITs IN TAXES Panel urges major changes in U.S. tax code TRADING CENTER TRACK THESE TOPICS My Portfolio Alerts Company: HSBC Hldgs Plc Add Create Get breaking news sent directly to your in-box Create a Portfolio \| Create an Alert Overall, there will still be a 5% increase in spending this season, according to a separate survey by BIGresearch for the National Retail Federation, a trade group, as consumers who plan to increase their outlays more than offset those cutting back. Consumers will spend an average of $738 each this holiday season, up from $702 a year ago, according to the NRF survey of about 7,700 consumers. Eyeing energy costs Of 32% of consumers who intend to spend less, 64% will do so because of financial reasons, according to the telephone survey of 1,000 consumers in mid-October by Gallup for Experian, a credit-reporting firm. "Incomes have not been growing" and energy costs have gone up, said Dennis Jacobe, chief economist with the Gallup Organization, a polling and research firm. "A lot of consumers don't have a lot of alternatives to decrease their energy use. They have to heat their houses. A lot of them don't have any alternative but to drive to work. They can't reduce those costs and their incomes aren't going up," Jacobe said. But others note that there's usually a portion of consumers who reduce their spending at Christmas, for a variety of reasons. Those include "my kids are older, or maybe the family decided we're only going to buy one gift," said Phil Rist, vice president of strategy at BIGresearch. Still, he said, "energy has the opportunity to be the grinch" that takes a bite out of consumer spending. December might be the first month some consumers receive dramatically higher heating bills as cold weather sets in. Consumers will spend a bit less on themselves this season, Rist noted, with the average amount spent on gifts for oneself dropping 3% to $86 this year from $89 last year. Fewer lights this year On the Gallup survey, consumers appeared willing to try a variety of shopping destinations for holiday gifts: 82% consumers said they'd head to department stores, 77% said they'd seek gifts at discount stores, 59% said specialty stores (e.g. toy, jewelry or clothing stores), 38% will shop online and 31% will use mail-order catalogs. But fewer will hang Christmas lights this year: 52% of consumers said they would hang Christmas lights outside this year, down from 58% who said they did so last year. "Some of this is psychological," Jacobe said. "It's not really 'how much dollars I save,' it's just 'I feel wasteful ... I feel irresponsible not conserving when the price goes so high." Resisting credit cards On the personal-finance front, the good news is a majority of consumers say they have cash on hand to cover the season's shopping budget: 86% said they'd buy holiday purchases with available money while just 12% said their shopping will increase credit-card debt, according to the Gallup-Experian poll. But how many will stick to their plans? Yet another poll shows that while two-thirds of consumers save in advance for holiday shopping, a good portion of those consumers don't stick to the confines of their holiday budget. About 13% of consumers said they exceeded their budget last year by an average $370, according to an online poll in August of 1,500 people by research firm TNS-NFO for HSBC-North America, of HSBC Holdings (HBC: HSBC Hldgs Plc News, chart, profile Last: 79.71+0.32+0.40% 10:10am 11/03/2005 Add to portfolio Analyst Create alertInsider Discuss FinancialsMore HBCHBC79.71, +0.32, +0.4%) , the London-based financial services company.