 The holidays are just around the corner, so most Americans are swiping their cards left and right with consumer confidence up and Record highs in the stock market. What can we expect to see this year to hear her take? We're joined now by Melissa Armo founder of the stock swoosh Melissa a study from Mastercard shows that US retail spending was up 3.6% between November 1st and December 9th from the same period in 2016 and since November e-commerce sales were up 16.3% so is the upcoming holiday season the main reason for this or is there something else at play? Well, thanks for having me. Well, you know what? I think that today is a great example of why consumers are having so much confidence. Look at the market We just closed at record highs again today. I mean the spy has made a 25% move in one calendar year So to get numbers like that and you're not surprised in fact I wouldn't even be surprised if by the end of the year the numbers not only meet expectations But exceed the expectations that companies thought that they would have for the for the sales for the holiday season Well, despite the retail boom. It's one of the only industries. That's not adding jobs So should we expect to see strong retail sales after the holidays if we keep seeing store closures? Well, here's the thing These some of these stores have got to compete better the brick and mortar stores with the online on the line stores And they're trying to do that But the problem is with the holidays a lot of these stores have big sales because they do the the price lashing a lot of them Have 45% discounts for the black Friday in the holiday season It's hard to compete then because during the year if these brick and mortar stores have these huge sales people wait Or then they shift to go online So I think the challenge for brick and mortar stores for retail Anyone that's still out there that's competing okay the Walmart's the targets the Coles the Macy's Anyone that's out there that's fighting for a market share against the Amazons of the world They've got to find a better way and it's not always giving the discounts like for example Coles The stock was in a downtrend right before the holiday season It was trading around 38 around November 9th before the Thanksgiving rush It's up now today had a huge rally again today back up in an uptrend over 54 You you know the stock was dragging all year They've got to find a better way to get people in to buy and you know That's the challenge right now because you look at Amazon You bring up a good point because even though the internet has definitely disrupted the retail industry online sales only account For about 10% of total retail sales, so if that is the case or considering it is Why do you think the industry is doing so poorly when it's not the holiday season? Is it just because during black Friday? They End up you know putting everything 75% off Well the thing is it could be different in 2018. That's what I'm saying people now are lightening up on their pocketbooks They're not they're feeling like they can spend money. That's why consumer confidence is high That's why people are feeling like oh my gosh. I don't have to worry about so much in the future I can go out and buy this gift and there's something big It's not just a holiday sales that we that we're seeing a trend here for the for the shopping It's something called self-gifting. Okay, so self-gifting is oh, I need that so-and-so I'm gonna buy that for myself plus the presents for my family and friends So self-gifting has been a big trend this holiday season I think overall you're seeing people feeling like they can loosen up on their pocketbooks because the economy is getting better and that Overall is going to project into 2018 if the market continues to rally and once again the tax bill if these companies if these Corporations are going to get this huge tax break if this really passes which everyone feels very optimistic that it's going to Happen that is going to help give all these companies a boost target Walmart Macy's Coles all these companies I'm talking about Amazon too. They're going to get a huge tax break Well, as you just said there has been a major focus recently on consumer confidence Which is sitting nicely at a 17-year high, but wages still remain pretty stagnant I mean we just saw that in the most recent jobs report So how is it that Americans are feeling optimistic if we're not feeling improvements in our paychecks? Well, I think people are feeling optimistic because if you have a 401k plan and you're reading your statements for the last year It's increasing without you having to do anything. So that right there makes people feel better about the future more secure for the retirement Also, if they do these tax cuts for income tax going into 2018 people are going to see that immediate savings They're going to see that immediate savings and that makes people feel more optimistic about the future as far as the wage growth I mean people have been talking about this I don't know why it hasn't caught up with everything else Maybe it's just one of those lagging things. It's going to take a while to get caught up Maybe you're going to see an after effect of these companies saving money on the taxes with the corporate tax rate being cut And then they're going to start to pay more for more qualified labor I mean, maybe that's going to reflect on top of that after the fact I mean, I don't know why we haven't seen that because unemployment is low But I definitely think that companies might want to pay more for better labor pay more wages And that might have an effect maybe 12 24 months down the road Melissa rmo founder of the stocks who's thanks so much for your time today Thanks. Thanks for having me