this program is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. captioning sponsored by wpbt susie: good evening everyone. the consumer keeps spending. tom, americans were opening up their wallets in october, giving a boost to retail sales. tom: susie, that report was surprisingly strong, and the nation s retailers are hoping this means a green christmas. the commerce department reported retail sales rose 1.2% in october, that follows a 0.7% increase in september. susie: today s results were the largest gain in seven months. as erika miller explains, that s welcome news for more than just the nation s merchants. reporter: when you think of retail sales, you probably think of shopping bags. and cash registers. but the big driver of retail sales in october doesn t have either. sales at auto dealerships posted their biggest gain since the last year s cash for clunkers program, up more than 5%. economist jonathan basile sees that as a particularl
this program is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. captioning sponsored by wpbt susie: good evening everyone. the consumer keeps spending. tom, americans were opening up their wallets in october, giving a boost to retail sales. tom: susie, that report was surprisingly strong, and the nation s retailers are hoping this means a green christmas. the commerce department reported retail sales rose 1.2% in october, that follows a 0.7% increase in september. susie: today s results were the largest gain in seven months. as erika miller explains, that s welcome news for more than just the nation s merchants. reporter: when you think of retail sales, you probably think of shopping bags. and cash registers. but the big driver of retail sales in october doesn t have either. sales at auto dealerships posted their biggest gain since the last year s cash for clunkers program, up more than 5%. economist jonathan basile sees that as a particularl
this program is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. captioning sponsored by wpbt susie: good evening everyone. the consumer keeps spending. tom, americans were opening up their wallets in october, giving a boost to retail sales. tom: susie, that report was surprisingly strong, and the nation s retailers are hoping this means a green christmas. the commerce department reported retail sales rose 1.2% in october, that follows a 0.7% increase in september. susie: today s results were the largest gain in seven months. as erika miller explains, that s welcome news for more than just the nation s merchants. reporter: when you think of retail sales, you probably think of shopping bags. and cash registers. but the big driver of retail sales in october doesn t have either. sales at auto dealerships posted their biggest gain since the last year s cash for clunkers program, up more than 5%. economist jonathan basile sees that as a particularl
this program is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by wpbt susie: good evening, everyone. the bulls are back on wall street. tom, investors were enthusiastic on some encouraging economic news: orders in august for things like machinery and computers were stronger than expected. tom: susie, this is the fourth week in a row that the major stock averages were positive and in a big way. let s run down the numbers from today s action. the dow jumped almost 200 points. the nasdaq added 54 and the s&p 500 rose 24. those indexes were up roughly 2% each. these are four month highs for the indices. today s gains came on heavier trading volume: just over a billion shares on the big board and over two billion on the nasdaq. susie: the dow is up more than 8% for the month, the best september gain in 70 years. s&p s chief investment strategist sam stovall says investors are less worried about the u.s. slipping int
captioning sponsored by wpbt susie: good evening, everyone. the bulls are back on wall street. tom, investors were enthusiastic on some encouraging economic news: orders in august for things like machinery and computers were stronger than expected. tom: susie, this is the fourth week in a row that the major stock averages were positive and in a big way. let s run down the numbers from today s action. the dow jumped almost 200 points. the nasdaq added 54 and the s&p 500 rose 24. those indexes were up roughly 2% each. these are four month highs for the indices. today s gains came on heavier trading volume: just over a billion shares on the big board and over two billion on the nasdaq. susie: the dow is up more than 8% for the month, the best september gain in 70 years. s&p s chief investment strategist sam stovall says investors are less worried about the u.s. slipping into another recession. we re getting better than expected economic data which is making investors bel