NYT: Consumer Spending Picking Up

What I’m hearing across a wide swath of retail is that sales are simply much stronger than companies had expected.

Robert Barbera, Chief Economist, ITG

There’s a true desire to buy that I haven’t seen in two or three years.  The consumer’s gotten a little bit braver.

John Morris, Retail Analyst, BMO Capital

Front page article in today’s New York Times: “Upbeat Signs Revive Consumers’ Mood for Spending”, The New York Times, April 7, A1.

Mastercard’s SpendingPulse this morning reported big year over year increases in a vareity of categories for March 2010:

spending-pulse-march-10

The International Council of Shopping Centers is predicting up to a 10% increase in March same store sales from the year ago period when they report the numbers tomorrow (Thu).

March Auto Sales were up 24% year over year in March.

This supports what I wrote in last week’s Client Note about results from Nike, Tiffany, Darden and Best Buy.

Moody’s Economy.com Chief Economist Mark Zandi said the mood has gone from panicked to cautious to “almost a bit giddy”.

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