During the month of January, about 40 percent of gift cards are redeemed and that is exactly what consumers began to do this past week. As a result, chain stores saw their sales rise slightly.

This is a solid gain again for retailers for the second month in a row.

The last-minute rush by consumers may have come too late. I think the season overall was uneven.

It looks like that number is tracking at 6.8 percent, slightly higher than what we expected, ... We did expect it would be a lot stronger but sales got pinched at the end of the month because of cooler temperatures in some parts of the country.

Consumers report that the high gasoline prices are having a negative impact on their frequency of shopping trips, which in turn affects spending.

Wow, wow, wow, ... We saw widespread gains across categories last month. Looking at the ex-auto component, the (favorable) comparisons are reaching back all the way to March 2000, prior to the slowdown at the peak of the economic recovery.