On a day when much of the United States is experiencing a massive deep freeze, the stock market is on fire! The Federal Reserve’s comments from yesterday afternoon have kept the rally alive today as all major global indices trended higher. In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is slowly making its way back to the 18,000-level as the index rallied by nearly 300 points before noon. In Europe, there was mixed data during today’s session as the euro weakened further against the dollar to its lowest level since December 2005. At the same time, retail sales in Europe actually increased by 0.6% in November over last month which was well above consensus’ expectation for a 0.2% increase. They're now up 1.5% over last year, which is actually not too shabby in the face of the continent’s stagnant economy. The Bank of England also kept the main interest rate at 0.5% for the 70^th consecutive month. The initial jobless claims were quite optimistic this morning, and consumer credit data will be released later this afternoon. However, there were a few lesser data points worth mentioning.

It appears that the holiday shopping season in the US has been quite successful as various chain stores have reported mostly higher rates of year-over-year sales growth for December. This is likely to be reflected positively in the government’s December retail sales report when spending on automobiles and gas is excluded. The core reading for retails sales has been quite solid over the past few months, with year-over-year gains of 5.2% and 4.6% in November and October, respectively. Month-over-month gains were also strong, rising by 0.6% in November and 0.7% in October. The official retail sales results for December will be released on Wednesday, January 14^th. In the meantime, the table below shows the year-over-year changes in December same store sales for some select retailers.

Additionally, the Challenger Job-Cut Report showed far fewer layoffs during the month of December versus November. Total December layoffs came in at 32,640 compared to 35,940 in November, but more than the 30,623 jobs cut in December 2013. On an industry basis, announcements were heaviest in food, followed by automotive, healthcare, and energy. For all of 2014, total layoff announcements came in at 483,171 – this is a solid indication of the overall market health improving since this is the lowest annual total since 1997.