Menu

comScore (NASDAQ : SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today reported holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 29 days of the November – December 2010 holiday season. For the holiday season-to-date, $13.55 billion has been spent online, marking a 13-percent increase versus the corresponding days last year. Cyber Monday reached $1.028 billion in online spending, up 16 percent versus year ago, representing the heaviest online spending day in history and the first to surpass the billion-dollar threshold.

Fitch Ratings today published a special report stating that credit growth in China has not slowed materially from the rapid pace in 2009, despite the fact that headline data point to a slowdown. The agency states that Chinese banks have been offloading CNY trillions in loans in 2010 by artificially reducing their holdings of discounted bills and by re-packaging the loans into investment products for sale to investors.

Online advertised vacancies rose a modest 47,400 in November to 4,457,200 following an increase of 113,700 in October, according to The Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine™ (HWOL) Data Series released today. The nation’s Supply/Demand rate stood at 3.37 unemployed for every advertised vacancy in October (the last available unemployment data)—a figure that is down from a peak of 4.73 in October 2009. Nationally, there are 10.4 million more unemployed than advertised vacancies.

In October 2010 compared with September 2010, the industrial producer price index rose by 0.4% in the euro area (EA16) and by 0.5% in the EU27. In September 2010, prices increased by 0.3% in both zones.

GDP increased by 0.4% in the euro area (EA16) and by 0.5% in the EU27 during the third quarter of 2010, compared with the previous quarter, according to first estimates released by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. In the second quarter of 2010, growth rates were +1.0% in both zones.

Annual analysis released today from ForeSee Results suggests that retailers have reason to be cautiously optimistic about the upcoming holiday season. Customer satisfaction with online retailers on Cyber Monday was the same this year as last year, 73.1 on the American Customer Satisfaction Index's (ACSI) 100-point scale. However, satisfaction throughout the 2010 Thanksgiving holiday week and weekend was higher this year than in 2009, which bodes well for retailers hoping to see increasing holiday revenues.

The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index®, which had improved in October, increased further in November. The Index now stands at 54.1 (1985=100), up from 49.9 in October. The Present Situation Index rose to 24.0 from 23.5. The Expectations Index increased to 74.2 from 67.5 last month.

Nonfarm business sector labor productivity increased at a 2.3 percent annual rate during the third quarter of 2010, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Labor productivity is calculated by dividing an index of real output by an index of the combined hours worked of all persons, including employees, proprietors, and unpaid family workers. Output increased 3.7 percent and hours worked increased 1.4 percent in the third quarter. (All quarterly percent changes in this release are seasonally adjusted annual rates.) Nonfarm business productivity increased 2.5 percent from the third quarter of 2009 to the third quarter of 2010, as output increased 4.3 percent and hours worked rose 1.7 percent.

More than half (57 percent) of European insurers expect the total cost of Solvency II compliance to be higher than they initially estimated, according to results of a survey released by Accenture. Nearly one-third (29 percent) of the insurers surveyed said they expect to spend more than €25 million to comply with the directive, including 7 percent that anticipate spending more than €100 million. In a similar 2007 survey, only 4 percent of insurers said they expected to spend more than €26 million and none said they expected to spend more than €100 million.

Commercial vehicle (GVW Class 3-8) registrations in the U.S. during the first nine months of 2010 were 269,650 units, up 9.6 percent over the same period last year, according to Polk, the recognized leader in data-driven solutions for the commercial vehicle industry. Additionally, the used commercial vehicle (GVW Class 3-8) market achieved a new record of registrations during a nine month timeframe at 524,500 units. This historic volume represents 66 percent of the commercial vehicle market and an increase of 18.7 percent over the same timeframe in 2009. Combined registrations of new and used commercial vehicles in the first nine months of 2010 were 794,200, representing a 15.5 percent increase over the same period last year.