Online retail sales, excluding travel, surpassed $1 trillion last year “for the first time in history.” Comscore says the top grossing categories in 2022 were food, pet and baby goods, apparel and accessories, and computers. Apparel and accessories spending jumped 37% year over year, video games and accessories purchases rose 31% and home and garden online sales rose 25%.
London-based Shell has become the latest oil giant to post a record annual profit last year, joining U.S. peers in surging back from early pandemic losses on soaring energy prices. Shell’s $41.6 billion full-year profit whalloped its previous record of $31.4 billion in 2008. The results bring to more than $132 billion the combined profit last year of the three big firms -including historic results from Chevron and Exxon Mobil - reported during the past week.
Futures are mixed after stocks closed higher yesterday. The Dow Industrials edged up 7, the Nasdaq jumped a sharp 231 and the S&P 500 gained 42.