One of the big questions on everyone's minds heading into the holidays was what kind of holiday retailers would have.  Based on my research, I'm getting mixed signals.

Wall Street Journal offered the following:

Holiday Shopping Off to Strong Start

Unprecedented 'Door-Buster' Deals Send Sales Up Significantly Over Last Year, but Crowds Thin on Saturday
http://tiny.cc/GNkMR

New York Times offered the folowing headline:

Consumer Confidence Declines to a 16-Year Low

Truthfully, they could both be true.  We could have seen a spike over the shopping weekend that was not sustainable.