Category Archives: Economy

Gas Pump Prices and Cost Sensitivity

June 25, 2009

According to a survey fielded by AAA, 37.1 million Americans will be traveling over the July 4th holiday weekend. According to AAA if this prediction proves true, it will represent a 1.9% decrease from the same week in 2008. As... Continue reading...

Posted by Bill Tancer at 04:36 PM | (0) | (0)
In Categories Economy

Holiday Retail - High Income Exodus

December 29, 2008

As we examine the daily pattern of visits to our Retail 500 Index for the last three years we see that for most of the holiday season we trailed 2007 holiday traffic numbers, we consistently beat the 2006 holiday. However,... Continue reading...

Posted by Bill Tancer at 08:01 PM | (0) | (1)
In Categories Economy

Layaway - Lexicon Changes with the Economy

December 04, 2008

The term "layaway" seems so 1970's. Yet if you look at search terms sending traffic to the Hitwise Shopping and Classifieds category, you'll see this retro term resurfacing as consumers struggle to find ways of navigating purchases this holiday season.... Continue reading...

Posted by Bill Tancer at 12:49 PM | (0) | (0)
In Categories Economy | Search | Shopping and Classifieds

Lipstick and the Narrative Fallacy

December 01, 2008

One of my favorite recent books is Nassim Taleb’s Black Swan. While reading the book last year, I was struck by a point that Nassim made regarding the narrative fallacy, or our inclination as analysts to only look at data... Continue reading...

Posted by Bill Tancer at 02:26 PM | (2) | (0)
In Categories Economy

Back-to-School: Online Holds Steady

August 12, 2008

From our ABCNews Blog: Despite reports from retailers of expected declines in the back-to-school retail season, online data reveals that visits to office supply and school supply sites is holding steady when compared to previous year's visits. The chart below... Continue reading...

Posted by Bill Tancer at 04:34 PM | (0) | (0)
In Categories Economy

Housing Market - Have We Reached Bottom?

July 29, 2008

From our ABCNews Blog: Last week's report on existing home sales by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), revealing a 2.6 percent decline from May, added to the pile of sobering news about the housing market and the economy. Here... Continue reading...

Posted by Bill Tancer at 03:53 PM | (2) | (0)
In Categories Economy

Hitwise Commentary on ABCNews.com

July 10, 2008

In addition to our TIME.com column, we are now posting regularly to the ABCNews Blog. Our posts center around the application of Hitwise data to news related topics. Going forward, I'll be posting summaries of our TIME column and ABCNews... Continue reading...

Posted by Bill Tancer at 02:39 PM | (0) | (0)
In Categories Economy

No Free Lunch

June 25, 2007

My weekly TIME column is up today. There really is no such thing as a free lunch...... Continue reading...

Posted by Bill Tancer at 12:52 PM | (0) | (0)
In Categories Economy

Housing Starts in U.S. Looking Up

March 20, 2007

The commerce department released housing starts for February 2007 today, reporting that starts unexpectedly rebounded 9% from the previous month, after a 9 year low. Pouring a little cold water on the news, the Commerce department also reported that housing... Continue reading...

Posted by Bill Tancer at 07:30 PM | (0) | (0)
In Categories Economy

Existing and New Home Sales - September Numbers

October 25, 2006

Today at 10:00am ET, the National Association of Realtors will release September's existing home sales numbers. Last month, I predicted a change of direction in housing sales based on a pattern we have noticed in the query "homes for sale."... Continue reading...

Posted by Bill Tancer at 06:55 AM | (2) | (0)
In Categories Economy | Real Estate

Dropping Gas Prices Fuel Online Retail Visits

September 21, 2006

On Tuesday the National Retail Federation (NRF) released its forecast for holiday retail sales, expecting U.S. retail to increase by a very moderate 5% over the previous year. This article from CNN Money, makes the point that declining fuel prices... Continue reading...

Posted by Bill Tancer at 12:53 PM | (0) | (0)

 

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