hi, everybody, welcome to the wall street journal report. i'm maria bartiromo. ready, set, shop. black friday is already gone. what about consumers? the best shopping strategies, where people are planning to spend and what will be the hot items this year. plus, 'tis the season to give, that is. who is in need, who is giving and the business of generosity. "the wall street journal report" begins right now.

>> we'll have all of that coming up in just a minute, but first let's get to bill griffeth with some of the headlines this week. bill? >> here's a lookt what's making news as we head into a new week on wall street. the holiday shopping season kicked off with a bang this year. thousands of people lined up to start shopping on black friday, and it happened even earlier this year. some stores opened their doors at midnight. shoppers looked for bargains on toys to tablets to tvs, and they found them, most of them. retailers will make as much as 40% of their yearly profit. the markets, though, had a gloomy holiday shortened week. the holidays fell on concerns about europe's economy and its impact on the u.s., the failure of the congressional super committee, and of all things, a poor bond option in germany and italy as well. meanwhile, a new stress test is coming for america's banks, the federal reserve announcing that the nation's 31 biggest banks

will be examined, testing their ability to withstand a major market and economic shock, including a theoretical rise in unemployment to 13% and further deterioration in europe. the results will be made public in march. america's economy grew at a slightly slower pace than estimated. the overall measure of the u.s. economy was revised downward for the third quarter to an annualized rate of just 2%, partly on lower business inventories. and existing home sales for october rose unexpectedly. low interest rates and high rents pushed people to the housing market. sales climbed by 1.4%. and they're off. black friday kicked off the start of the 2011 holiday shopping season, so the question is, will consumers be naughty or nice to the retail industry this year? a woman who should know, who was up on midnight at thanksgiving night in macy's in new yoor new

city. how was it? >> it was busy. 900 people were waiting for the stores to open, so it could be an advantage for retailers opening at midnight. >> there was a disagreement with them opening earlier and disrupting family thanksgiving time, but they'll do it again, won't they? >> they'll do it again, but he overall, black friday typically counts for 9 to 10% of holiday sales. >> what is your expectation of the overall season this year? >> i think it will be pretty good. we're looking for total sales growth to be up 3 to 4%, price increases out there coupled with innovative items, some of which are not cheap. look at the ipads, the iphones. i think that's all going to drive sales. >> is anybody going to make money, though? the bargains are legion this

year. they've been very aggressive with their pricing and their marketing, but is anybody going to make money this weekend? >> they'll make some money for the season. overall for black friday weekend, typically the first day of black friday, which is black friday, it's not a big margin day. it's a low margin day but it's a traffic day. if anything, black friday weekend is typically more self-purchase than gifting and you have to go through the rest of the season. >> those in the markets are over in europe. are they worried about that right now? >> no, i think it seems far away to some and to some it's not really impacting their spending power. if you think bay lot of the u.s. retailers, more of them are solely focused on domestic than european. certainly with the companies, we are seeing those with european exposure, a lot of questions are being asked. >> if anything, retail shopping has been rather resilient this year, hasn't it? >> it has.

we've had steady sales, and november seems even better. >> what are your big box store expectatio expectations? >> i think they'll do well. target has had some new things this year, and if anything, i think we'll see price matters to the discounters. >> walmart has reduced layaway, financing, things like that, so the incentives are back this time around. >> incentives are back, and i think part of the reason why, you've seen more competition out there whether it's retailers like t jrkj maxx and ross. >> i read that 60% of shoppers will be playing santa themselves this year, so is promotion of markets leading to self-gifting?

>> we are seeing self-gifting because when you see deals out there, they buy for themselves. sometimes a little embarrassing to get somebody a gift that's a big discount rather than full price. >> that's true. why not get it for yourself if you can. who do you think are the big leaders this year? >> i think it's all about tablets. ipads, kindles, you name it, it will be a big tablet year for the retailers. also boots and accessories. jewelry and watches are performing well also. if it gets colder, sweaters. it could be a good sweater year if we just have the weather cooperate. >> apparel should be a good year, i would think. >> we haven't had very good apparel years in years past, and overall cosmetics are working. >> on-line versus brick and mortar. what are your expectations for on-line this year? >> on-line should be up into the teens, and free shipping is

helping. we're seeing more retailers get into the fray with free shipping, and we should see free shipping last a while, too. >> is anybody making money? there's one thing when you've got the doorbusters on black friday that bring people in and get the traffic going, but the free shipping is more much of the holiday shopping season for the on-line retailers. are they making money doing that? >> they will because when one of the elements is on-line versus store, typically the on-line margins are much greater than store margins. if you're able to increase the average transaction, it's going to sustain and potentially move higher on-line sales and on-line sales profitability. >> we've been waiting for sales to encroach on the brick and mortar. is it encroaching on what would be brick and mortar stores? >> not yet. it's moving higher, and some retailers will see it as 10 or 20% of their sales, but it's not a 50-50 split yet. the ease of transaction is

helping it move higher. >> so your takeaway for the holiday shopping season this year? >> the theme is planned promotions. i think it's more promotional, i think it's planned, i think inventory levels are pretty clean, and those clean inventory levels will taste good as they see demand emerge. >> i'll let you get back to shopping. your channel checks, as it were. >> 30 people are out there looking over black friday sales and i'll be out there myself right after this. >> now back to maria with the rest of the show. up next on the wall street journal report, consumer concerns this holiday season. from making a list and checking it twice to dreading the time you spend in line at the register. what you'll be spending and feeling this year. and later, raising money for americans in need. we have the latest poverty statistics impacting business of charities and how you can help.

i'm an expert on softball. and tea parties. i'll have more awkward conversations than i'm equipped for because i'm raising two girls on my own. i'll worry about the economy more than a few times before they're grown. but it's for them, so i've found a way. who matters most to you says the most about you. massmutual is owned by our policyholders so they matter most to us. massmutual. we'll help you get there.

welcome back. believe it or not, there are 30 shopping days from black friday to christmas eve in 2011 in this season of gift giving, tipping and holiday travel. what are consumers most concerned about now? greg daugherty is the executive director of consumer reports magazine and greg joins us now. good to see you. >> good to see you. >> this is the fourth straight holiday season with really an uncertain economic picture. everybody is nervous out there, so how is that impacting how much consumers are planning to spend this year? >> what they're telling us is they're probably going to spend a bit less than they spent last year. it looks like a better year than 2008, which was sort of the worst of it in terms of the recession, but they're going into this holiday season very cautious. >> do you think that changes once they're in the stores, or does that usually play out when they say what they're going to do beforehand? >> we do find people tend to overspend. most americans go into the season with a budget, but we know from past experience an

awful lot of people go over their budget by significant amounts. it's all about what happens when they get in the stores and what kind of deals merchants have for them. >> so people do set a budget, then, for gift giving? >> more people are now than last year. >> that makes sense. a sign of the times, right? you've polled people with something called the joy index? tell us about that. >> jothe joy index is if they'r feeling happier this season than last season and most people don't. they're concerned, they're more concerned about the economy, and when they get into the stores, they're going to be very value conscious and prices are a big deal. >> they want a deal. >> they do, and they're willing to wait for it. >> what kind of products do you think they will be buying? what do you have in terms of the products that will be particularly hot? >> right. well, the hottest category always is clothing. but next to that is electronics, and it looks this year like the

ipad, the new iphone, the iph e iphone s, anything for kids, the rock me elmo. but gift cards are hot and cash is hot also. >> that never goes out of style, right? so how effective is all this for the retailers? does it mean since people want deals they're going to get deals? >> i think it's going to be very competitive, and if retailers are going to get them to open their wallets, they'll have to be there with deals. the on-line shopping looks like it might be a little flat this year from previous years, it's not going up a lot, and many people say they get better deals in the stores themselves, so i think that speaks to a lot of retailers' ability to kind of communicate with consumers and offer things they want. >> tell us more about that, because we've seen these strategies that people take on. what kind of strategies are people using to ensure that they get the best deal ever? for a long time it was just

that, it was the on-line story. people kept flocking to dot-coms to get the best deal. talk to us about price comparison, the smartphones, social media, cash versus credit. >> yeah. people are using every tool at their disposal. smartphones, indeed, people are using those to actually buy things, to price shop. actually, where people use their smartphones most are to call their friends and say, what do you want, and they also use them to kill time in those long lines in stores. but people are out for deals and they'll go anyplace for them, and they also told us they'll spend on average 19 hours holiday shopping this year, which is up from four hours last year, which says to us people are willing to spend the time to look until they're sure they've got the best possible deal before they buy. >> greg, thanks for talking to you. >> thank you. up next on the "wall street journal report," feel a need in this season of giving?

we'll take a look at people who are hungry and the

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where you can start at 1.20 a20 go up to 190. we have lots of things on the menu and we use only the body of the fish. at the end of the day we're talking about food that will potentially spoil. because of that, it goes to the charities and the food is eaten by somebody else. they are all excited because the food is coming from a restaurant. in new york, i think the official number, 1.84 million people are hungry, which is huge

for one city. it makes me feel good. we are doing something very meaningful to the community. >> charity from the kitchen and beyond. as we start another holiday season, we're taking a look at the need of those americans living in poverty. jillian is the director of american harvest, and we have the national spokesperson for the salvation army. thank you so much for joining us. now, jillian, you were on the program about this time last year. you described the number of people using emergency food services for the first time in their lives because of what we're seeing economically. you're feeding 300,000 new yorkers a week. how would characterize hunger right now? >> in new york city, we're seeing a sustained high need for food. we're seeing people turn to food kitchens and food pant treries the first time, and those who i thought would be moving on are still relying on that food.

people need that help getting food to their families. >> there was a central poverty measure this month that showed a record 49.1 million americans lived in poverty in 2010. does this surprise you? how shock rg these numbers? >> the numbers are very discouraging, and yet they're real. we found in own ministry and programs across the country an increase. four years ago we served 28 million people, last year we served 30 million people. so you can get the sense. and we've seen a 92% increase in demand in our own feeding programs across the country. >> and have you seen a change in terms of the services that have been in the biggest demand? >> well, very high demand for housing because of homelessness, very high demand for food, high demand for utility assistance because the unemployment rate is still so high and yet this poverty issue is really a major issue that we're looking at

strategically for the long run. >> jilly, the price of food. eating at home. the price higher in 2011 than 2010. more than 20% people surveyed by gallup are reporting they don't have enough money to buy food. talk about the food insecurity across the u.s. what can be done to move the needle here and change this? >> food insecurity is very high. it's close to 49 million americans classified as food insecure which essentially means they don't always know where their next meal is going to come from. over 60% of those are children. food costs are rising. right here in new york city, where city harvest is based, those poverty statistics and the food insecurity numbers often don't tell the whole story. we're seeing many new yorkers who we know need to be earning around $60,000 a year for a

family of three to be considered self-sufficient. just a point between that gap, at the point where food stamp eligibility cuts off and you're considered self-sufficient. >> what do you think about that, and do you see a particular group that seems to be getting hit harder than others? >> families with children and families suffering from addictions within the household, and one of the things we're trying to do is to get beyond the immediate, the temporary aid, which is so important, the safety net, to make sure there's food on the table. we're looking at what are the barriers to making lifestyle changes? what are the barriers to employment? what are the barriers to being able to afford rent? so these issues, we can keep feeding people constantly, which we're more than happy to do, and many organizations like us doing the same thing. but we have to be willing to address, what are the issues with this sustained poverty? our lifetime strategy is beginning to have an immediate

impact on poverty and reduce the poverty rate in america. it starts with understanding what are the barriers that people are trying to overcome? >> are there any certain barriers you're seeing? >> i think the barriers are very real and we're certainly seeing all of that right here in new york city. we're working to help people really access the food they'll need in the future. we hear a lot of talk of food deserts and just making sure people have access to quality food, which is key. and meanwhile, people are hungry tonight. we have to keep that food moving today. more americans are turning to food kitchens and food pantries and we have to make sure we're getting the food to them this season. >> let me talk about how the salvation army is having difficul difficulty with food collecting. >> the very first kettle was in

san francisco in 1991, and it wasn't there to raise money, it was there to ask people to donate food. this big pot was put out in san francisco, and the salvation army the first day said, put food in this pot so we can feed people, and he began to discover they were putting food but they were also putting money in that large pot, and it became the birth of the red cattle company. it's important to know that wherever you see that kettle in month matter what town you live in, the money that's donated will stay? that community for that very purpose. >> thank you very much for joining us today. and happy holidays. jilly stevens, major george hood. it's the upcoming week that will have an impact on your money. as we take a break, look at how the stock market ended the week.

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noble, among others. on monday, the homes sold will be reported. and on tuesday, the home price index. and thursday, the 1st of december, we will find out about total auto and truck sales, that report out on thursday. and then on friday, we will get the employment report of november for 2011. we'll find out how many jobs the economy lost or gained in the last month. typically a market mover. that's the show for today. thanks so much for joining us. next week i'll be reporting from london with ta look at the economic drama on the other side of the mark