The lifeless American Economy has regained a heartbeat, although it may be an irregular one or even just a murmur. But hey, it’s something right? The last week of November brought about a jump in the Dow Jones, NASDAQ, and Standard & Poor 500 indexes. We finally have a spike on the Economic EKG monitor again. The Dow Jones experienced its biggest gain since March of 2009, soaring 490 points on November 30th. For the week, the Dow is up 7.3%, the S&P 500 is up 7.6% and the NASDAQ is up 7.3%.
Those numbers are the spike you see on the EKG monitor. So what was the defibrillator? A few things combined to charge the pads and spark the American Economy to life.
The first, Black Friday, which is ironic because it sounds like it should be the translation for the end of the world as predicted by the Mayans. Black Friday saw an increase in shoppers by 6.6% and the average spending per shopper rose 9.1%, consequently bumping retail stocks up 3.5% in the S&P 500 Retail Index.
Second, holiday travel. The nation saw a 4% increase in the number of Americans making a trip of 50 miles or more for Thanksgiving weekend, which is the biggest increase since 2008. Despite increases in average gas prices, roundtrip airfare, and hotel room rates as compared to last year’s Thanksgiving, more Americans are still hitting the road to visit their loved ones for the holidays. Still think we are lazy Obama? (AND THE SURVEY SAYS: 60% of Occupiers of Wall Street in New York voted for Obama in 2008…hmmm)
Lastly, the American people cranked their engines to give the Automotive Industry their best sales month in over two years. American Automakers such as Ford, GM and Chrysler all saw significant increases in sales which most likely came from the offering of more attractive lease contracts, more incentives (in dollars) per vehicle, and a release of new vehicle lines.
As for us at Webb Transportation, we also saw a little boost as we had a 8% increase in sales as compared to last November! Keep fighting fellow Americans, from farm towns to big cities. Even baby steps will get us there eventually.
