Black Friday is the name given to the first day after Thanksgiving. It is one of the most important retail and spending events in the United States. Every holiday season, prognosticators make predictions about the level of sales on Black Friday, and investor confidence may be affected by whether or not those expectations are met or exceeded.
If consumers follow up Thanksgiving by spending a lot of money on Black Friday and retailers show strong numbers, then investors might have their first indication that it is shaping up to be a particularly profitable shopping season. This confidence can be reflected in the stock prices of the retailers that post strong sales. Conversely, many take it as a sign of trouble if retailers are unable to meet expectations on Black Friday. Concern over the economy is magnified if consumers are perceived to be reining in their spending.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Black Friday is the name given to the day after Thanksgiving, when retailers traditionally would be “in the black” for the year; now it signals the biggest day of the important holiday shopping weekend.
- Cyber Monday is the Monday after the holiday weekend; sales during the five-day period of Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday are seen as reflective of consumer sentiment.
- Strong sales during this period can benefit retail sector stocks, particularly the stocks of companies that report strong sales.
- However, the overall stock market and broader investor sentiment are not always impacted by the results of Black Friday, with market participants focused on a variety of economic and political developments.
Millions Shop on Thanksgiving Weekend
In 2020, an estimated 186.4 people shopped in stores or online during the period from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF), spending an average of $311.75 over the five-day period, down 13.9% from $361.90 in 2019. More than 100 million people shopped online for the first time, and the number of online-only shoppers increased by 44% to 95.7 million.
FAST FACT
Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving weekend, in which consumers go back to work and shop online, is also a notable day for the retail industry; it marks the end of the five-day Thanksgiving weekend shopping period.
Black Friday Weekend and Stocks
Thanksgiving is an important day for a lot of businesses, particularly those in the food industry. However, U.S. stock markets are closed on Thanksgiving and open for only half the day on Black Friday. Global markets are open, but stock market trading is unlikely to be affected by Thanksgiving alone because of the importance of the day after.
Black Friday is important because this is the shopping day when many retailers have traditionally made enough sales to put them in the black for the year. Since many retailers consider Black Friday to be crucial to their business’s annual performance, investors look at Black Friday sales numbers as a way to gauge the overall state of the entire retail industry. Economists, based on the Keynesian assumption that spending drives economic activity, view lower Black Friday numbers as an indication of slowed growth.
Important:A particularly strong or weak Black Friday-through-Cyber Monday shopping period tends to have a big impact on retail stocks, but it may not be significant enough to sway broader stock market sentiment.
Black Friday and Stocks
Many analysts and investors scoff at the notion that Black Friday has any real predictability for either the fourth quarter or markets as a whole. Instead, they suggest that it only causes very short-term gains or losses.
Of note, the best U.S. sector from one week before to one week after Black Friday is retail. From 2007 to 2017, a grouping of S&P 500 retail stocks posted a 5% return, compared to the average 3% return for the S&P 500 over that period. For all 10 years, this basket of retail stocks has traded positively for the 10-day period.This trend continued with the S&P 500 Retailing Industry Group outperforming the S&P 500 by 1.5% and 0.1% during that period in 2018 and 2019, respectively.This pattern didn’t continue in 2020, when the S&P 500 returned 4.1% but the retailing industry group only returned 2.2%.
Holiday Sales 2020
The NRF announced on Jan. 15, 2021, that retail sales over the 2020 holiday season grew 8.3% year over year (YOY), to $789.4 billion, exceeding NRF expectations. “Online and other non-store sales” rose 23.9% to $209 billion. This was more than double the five-year average YOY growth of 3.5%.