Stock futures point higher to start the week; An Amazon Web Services outage takes websites down

Americans are already shopping during the holidays. Will they find the deals they’re hoping for?

1 hour and 11 minutes ago

Americans are not expected to cut their vacation budgets this year. But they may spend more time looking for deals, and find smaller deals than they had hoped.

Analysts said consumers are expected to approach the year-end shopping season with the same thrifting spirit they have adopted through most of 2025, as they look to deal with price increases fueled by tariffs. Investopedia. Surveys show that shoppers keen to save have already started scanning deals long before Black Friday, but many are holding off on buying.

New National Retail Federation research shows what others have already discovered: Americans plan to shop at resale markets, look for deals, and cut back on some purchases. On average, Americans plan to spend about 1.3% less on gifts, food, decorations and other seasonal items during November and December compared to the previous year, the NRF reported.

“It’s definitely going to be a more unusual holiday season, at least from a consumer and brand perspective,” said Andrew Weber, who studies U.S. transactions on Amazon for PMG, a marketing and digital services firm. “Purchasing behavior may be a little different from what you expect.”

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–Sarina Trangel

Stock futures rise to start the week

1 hour and 49 minutes ago

Futures linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1%.

Standard & Poor’s 500 futures rose 0.2%.

Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.3%.