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CNN Live At Daybreak
The Morning After: Retailers Poised to Slash Prices
Aired December 26, 2003 - 06:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Time for a little 'Business Buzz' now. Christmas may be over, but retailers, they are not done yet. Now comes the big post holiday blitz. What kind of deals are out there?
Let's check in with Stacey Tisdale at the Nasdaq market site in New York.
And I have a feeling, Stacey, people are already lined up at some of those stores waiting for those markdowns.
STACEY TISDALE, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: There were already people walking around Times Square when I came in this morning. I'm like what's going on out there?
WHITFIELD: Unbelievable.
TISDALE: Fredricka, you and I should go shopping today. I'm not kidding.
WHITFIELD: OK.
TISDALE: The sales are going to be unbelievable. The week after Christmas has become increasingly important to the nation's retailers, particularly when you have such a disappointing holiday shopping season. A year ago, the week after Christmas accounted for nearly 12 percent of total holiday sales. That's up from 10.6 percent in 2001. Analysts definitely expect us to see numbers like that again this year.
But here is what Fredricka and I should be all over, you are going to see a number of stores roll out big discounts today. Listen to this, Macy's is discounting some products by 50 percent to 75 percent. Ann Taylor featuring reductions of up to 50 percent. But really net-net (ph) we saw these big retailers struggle, it was just the high-end luxury goods that had a strong season.
One more thing on the retail front, Fredricka, stores are really expecting us to come in earlier and use those gift cards. Gift cards very popular this holiday season. In fact, they expect to account for 8 percent all sales.
Let's talk about the market (INAUDIBLE) quiet session on Wall Street. Volume expected to be light. Premarket (ph) indicators look mixed as -- unchanged, mixed a little bit. And expect not much activity, especially because it's a shortened trading day. Markets closing at 1:00 Eastern Time. Well when things get going here, the Dow Jones industrials are going to be at 10,305. It lost 36 points on Tuesday. Very light volume. Sorry, Wednesday. We'll have the Nasdaq down 5 points (INAUDIBLE) session, 1443, but what a difference a year makes. Think how much better we are than we were last year at this time.
Those are the business news headlines. Now let's go back to Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks a lot -- Stacey.
TISDALE: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: Have fun when you get out there and shop today, if you get a chance.
TISDALE: Will do.
WHITFIELD: All right.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired December 26, 2003 - 06:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Time for a little 'Business Buzz' now. Christmas may be over, but retailers, they are not done yet. Now comes the big post holiday blitz. What kind of deals are out there?
Let's check in with Stacey Tisdale at the Nasdaq market site in New York.
And I have a feeling, Stacey, people are already lined up at some of those stores waiting for those markdowns.
STACEY TISDALE, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: There were already people walking around Times Square when I came in this morning. I'm like what's going on out there?
WHITFIELD: Unbelievable.
TISDALE: Fredricka, you and I should go shopping today. I'm not kidding.
WHITFIELD: OK.
TISDALE: The sales are going to be unbelievable. The week after Christmas has become increasingly important to the nation's retailers, particularly when you have such a disappointing holiday shopping season. A year ago, the week after Christmas accounted for nearly 12 percent of total holiday sales. That's up from 10.6 percent in 2001. Analysts definitely expect us to see numbers like that again this year.
But here is what Fredricka and I should be all over, you are going to see a number of stores roll out big discounts today. Listen to this, Macy's is discounting some products by 50 percent to 75 percent. Ann Taylor featuring reductions of up to 50 percent. But really net-net (ph) we saw these big retailers struggle, it was just the high-end luxury goods that had a strong season.
One more thing on the retail front, Fredricka, stores are really expecting us to come in earlier and use those gift cards. Gift cards very popular this holiday season. In fact, they expect to account for 8 percent all sales.
Let's talk about the market (INAUDIBLE) quiet session on Wall Street. Volume expected to be light. Premarket (ph) indicators look mixed as -- unchanged, mixed a little bit. And expect not much activity, especially because it's a shortened trading day. Markets closing at 1:00 Eastern Time. Well when things get going here, the Dow Jones industrials are going to be at 10,305. It lost 36 points on Tuesday. Very light volume. Sorry, Wednesday. We'll have the Nasdaq down 5 points (INAUDIBLE) session, 1443, but what a difference a year makes. Think how much better we are than we were last year at this time.
Those are the business news headlines. Now let's go back to Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks a lot -- Stacey.
TISDALE: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: Have fun when you get out there and shop today, if you get a chance.
TISDALE: Will do.
WHITFIELD: All right.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
