Well it looks like the U.S. consumer is not so dead after all! Despite dire predictions by CNBC and others in the financial media, the holiday shopping season started out with a bang! In fact, due to the weak dollar, a lot of foreigners flew into New York City and other major U.S. cities to do their Christmas shopping due to America's relatively low prices--and without any Value Added Tax (VAT). Thanks to an early Thanksgiving date this year, the holiday shopping season will also be longer than normal.

The pessimistic analyst community is notorious for underestimating corporate earnings and the U.S. consumer. Analysts had predicted that retail same-store sales would be up only about 4% this year. However, based on Friday's strong start to the holiday shopping season, it appears that the analyst community was dead wrong on their skepticism about consumer spending. Also, due to the "invasion" of foreign shoppers taking advantage of the weak U.S. dollar and the lack of a VAT, it looks like Friday's surge in retailing stocks will help lift investor sentiment this week.