retail sales

The National Retail Federation (NRF) is projecting holiday sales will increase 3.7 percent from a year ago. Shares of the Retail ETF, SPDR S&P Retail (ETF) (NYSE: XRT) gained more than 1 percent Thursday morning while the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE: SPY) traded lower by 0.2 percent...

Family Playtime Means Less Vice Time August summer vacations leave little money and opportunity to vice (yup, it’s a verb). Additionally, even more travel means even less vicing. Americans have become more focused on vacations, to the detriment of other forms of consumer spending. In...

U.S. retail sales figures out on Thursday showed that lower gas prices weren’t enough to prompt U.S. shoppers to spend more. Sales fell 0.8 percent in January, a near repeat of December’s 0.9 percent decline. While gas prices accounted for much of the 0.8 percent loss, spending...

1. Swiss franc rises 14 percent: On Thursday, the Swiss Franc appreciated considerably after Switzerland's central bank said it would allow its currency to float, rather than maintain a minimum exchange rate. Following the move, shares of currency brokers fell sharply on Friday, with FXCM Inc...

Andy Swan is a three-time financial technology entrepreneur. He co-founded his most recent company LikeFolio in 2013 with his brother. LikeFolio finds trends in publicly-traded companies by analyzing social media and helps investors find companies they want to invest in by highlighting which...

U.S. stocks were little changed yet again in Friday's action with no catalysts appearing to push stocks in any one direction. Retail sales rose more than expected in October, according to economic data released. A separate economic report showed import prices declining in September due to a...

Neil Dutta is the head of U.S. economics for Renaissance Macro Research, and he said that even though the risk of an outbreak in the United States is low, there will still be a lot of headlines about it in the near future. He recently joining Benzinga’s #PreMarket Prep to share thoughts...

U.S. stocks tumbled further on Wednesday and recovered significantly from intraday lows in a day of heavily volatility. The Dow traded lower by more than 450 points, dipping below 16,000 levels the index hasn't seen since February. The index recovered most of the losses but still closed the...

Investors continue to question where the bottom of this most recent dip in stocks will materialize. The markets closed on Friday near the same levels that led to a bounce in early August, however, many fear that a deeper correction may be in the works. The week ahead features the release of...

U.S. stocks plunged with the Dow, shedding more than 300 points, suffering the worst single day performance of the year. Despite the 300-plus point loss, both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq saw higher losses on a percentage basis as the CBOE Volatility Index surged over 24 percent to 18.76....