If you are thinking about how the markets will behave in the future you certainly need to understand the buying and spending patterns in the country. Christmas is considered as the most popular festival in the United States and therefore economists believe that Christmas can really have some kind of impact on the overall stock market of any country. Millions of people across the United States prefer to save all their money during the year so that they can spend more money during the month of December when they are with their friends and family members.
PNC Wealth Management has been doing some kind of survey from last 27 years which is also known as PNC Christmas Price Index. This price index is very different and does not influence the national stock market in America but it certainly provides a good picture of how the people are spending during the Christmas time. The survey is based on certain gift items that people tend to buy during the Christmas period. The gift items are from different categories and therefore they summarize the overall lifestyle of American people. Hence, many people in America love to take a quick look at the PNC Christmas Price Index because they consider it as a guide to wealth management index.
The year 2010 was not too good for the stock market because the movement of stocks was sluggish for most part of the year, but interesting figures have come up during the PNC Christmas Price Index which shows that the index has moved up 9.2% in the current year. This means that people are spending more on their Christmas gifts compare to last year. The figure clearly claims that this is the second highest jump in the last 27 years and highest jump in the index since 2003 where the index went up to 16% in that year. Many economists believe that the reason behind this increase could be because people this year are more inclined towards buying gold commodities and entertainment services which could cost them more because of the recession pressure.
