Doomed! The economic depression gains traction in the US

[BrilloPad]

Note thw word "surprise" in the titles. Certainly not surprising to me.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8459452.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8448715.stm

Are we supposed to base a trend on a single set of figures?

[Not So Wise]

Not susprising to anyone really, even to those of us who expect things to start getting better this year.

Many people are still hurting and even those that are not hurting (aka got a job) are being cautious.

Most people i know decided only to get xmas presents/cards this year for those they HAD to get for, not only to save money but also so they did not put people who might have no funds (or same idea) into awkward postions

Plus as ATW pointed out, the drop was very minor

[AtW]

0.3% is nothing - sales can't possibly be measured that accurately: with 25 trading days in a month losing 2 hours of trade per day would give you 0.3% loss.

[OwlHoot]

It's surprising to your average lefty Beeboid, who so desperately wants to believe the dodgy statistics and fantasy forecasts disseminated by the Government and their tame think tanks.

[Andy2]

and DOW is still rising

[Jeebo72]

I noted the words "rise" and "sales" ...good news.

[sasguru]

Note thw word "surprise" in the titles. Certainly not surprising to me.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8459452.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8448715.stm