Holiday sales rose this year as American spending remained resilient during the critical shopping season despite surging prices on everything from food to rent, according to one measure.  Holiday sales rose 7.6%, a slower pace than the 8.5% increase from a year earlier when shoppers began spending the money they had saved during the early part of the pandemic, according to Mastercard SpendingPulse, which tracks all kinds of payments including cash and debit cards.

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city house price index fell 0.5% in October, its fourth monthly decline.  Year-over-year prices rose 8.6%, slowing from 10.4% in the previous month.  Miami, Tampa, and Charlotte reported the highest year-over-year gains among the 20 cities in October, but all 20 cities reported lower price increases.  San Francisco and Seattle reported the lowest year-over-year gains, which have seen prices fall by more than 10% from a peak in May.  No cities saw home price growth rise on a monthly basis in October.

Tesla’s sell-off intensified yesterday, with the stock dropping an additional 8%. The electric car company is days away from closing out its worst month, quarter and year on record to become the worst-performing stock in 2022 among the most valuable tech companies.