Tuesday continues a busy earnings week, while data streams out of Asia and Europe. Nonetheless it will be a relatively quiet day, as Coca-Cola and Walt Disney report. There are no major economic reports scheduled for release in the U.S., although December consumer credit will be announced.

Here’s what you need to know.

• The U.K. starts the day off early with retail sales at 7:01 p.m. EST on Monday evening. Sales are seen declining 0.8 percent in January, after a 2.2 percent gain the month before. 
• Philippine CPI will be announced at 8:00 p.m. EST, with expectations for the index to show 0.5 percent increases in December.
• Czech unemployment is out at 3:00 a.m. EST, with economists polled by Bloomberg expecting the jobless rate to jump 50 basis points to 9.1 percent for January.
• At the same time, industrial production for both Hungary and Denmark will be announced.  Output is seen expanding by 9.3 percent year-on-year in Hungary, while Denmark sees 0.3 percent growth sequentially for December. Also at 3:00 a.m. EST, Taiwan will announce total exports for January. Exports are seen falling 17.0 percent from year ago levels.
• Industrial production continues to roll out over the next several hours in Europe. At 4:00 a.m. EST Norway is expected to announce production grew by a slower rate than in November, at 0.1 percent. Estimates are not yet available for Portugal production, which last grew by 0.5 percent.
• Europe’s largest economy, Germany, will announce industrial production at 6:00 a.m. EST. The country is expected to see a reversal in production, with no growth in December after a 0.6 percent contraction in November.
• At 8:30 a.m. EST, North American gets into the fray when Canada announces new building permits. Permits are expected to increase 1.0 percent in December, after a 3.6 percent decline in November. 
• U.S. announcements start at 10:00 a.m. EST., with JOLTs Job Openings and economic sentiment. Job openings are seen expanding to 3.25 million from 3.16 million. Meanwhile, optimism as measured by Investor’s Business Daily is seen jumping to 48.6 from 47.5. A level below 50 indicates pessimism. 
• Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke will testify at 10:00 a.m. EST on the state of the economy. Find coverage of his testimony live on Money Game. 
• Last on the agenda is consumer credit in the U.S. at 3:00 p.m. EST. Economists polled by Bloomberg see credit expanding by $7 billion, a decline from last month’s surprise $20.3 billion jump. 

U.S. corporates reporting quarterly results on Tuesday include names like Coca-Cola and Walt Disney. Below, a roundup of tomorrow’s big announcers.

Coca-Cola (KO): $0.77
AGCO (AGCO): $1.33
Western Union (WU): $0.40
CBRE Group (CBG): $0.44
Walt Disney (DIS): $0.71
DuPont Fabros Technology (DFT): $0.37
OpenTable (OPEN): $0.30
Panera Bread (PNRA): $1.42
Ralcorp Holdings (RAH): $1.35
Hartford Financial Services Group (HIG): $0.60

Consensus estimates provided by Bloomberg. 

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• Here Are The Key Market Moving Events For Monday, February 6, 2012
• Here Are The Key Market Moving Events For Wednesday, February 1, 2012
• Here Are The Key Market Moving Events For Friday, February 3, 2012

A relatively busy week continues on Thursday, as a number of S&P 500 corporates report earnings and data releases hit the street.

Already, the Federal Open Markets Committee has announced it sees unemployment declining further in 2012, but that the economy would grow slower than earlier forecast. 

Here’s what you need to know.

• Singapore will kick off the day with industrial production when the clock strikes midnight. Economists polled by Bloomberg see a 6.40% year-on-year gain for December, reversing a 9.60% decline in November.
• Germany and France will start a series of economic releases in Europe at 2:00 a.m. and 2:45 a.m. EST, respectively. Expectations are for consumer confidence in both countries to remain flat.  
• Attention then shifts to Sweden and Denmark. Forecasts are for both countries to report an increasing unemployment rate. Economists polled by Bloomberg see the Swedish and Danish jobless rates hitting 7.00% and 6.70%, respectively. 
• At 4:00 a.m. EST Italy will report consumer confidence, with economists polled by Bloomberg seeing the headline figure increasing to 92.0 from 91.6. Economists polled by ForexTV have a slightly different opinion, and see the index declining to 89.5.
• U.K. CBI retail sales are scheduled for 6:00 a.m. EST, with forecasts for the index to contract to -6 from 9. The CBI survey measures sales representing roughly 40% of the total U.K. retail industry.
• North American announcements start at 8:30 a.m. EST with Chicago Federal Reserve activity, durable goods orders and initial claims. Economists predict durable goods excluding transport will increase 0.9%, against a 0.3% gain in November. Initial claims are seen losing momentum and jumping to 370,000, up 18,000 from last week’s reading.
• Mexican retail sales are set for release at 9:00 a.m. EST. Forecasts put the November reading at 5.30% growth, accelerating from 3.00%.
• Later in the day, the Census will announce new home sales in the U.S., before the Kansas City Federal Reserve announces activity in the region at 11:00 a.m. EST. Home sales are seen increasing by 6,000 units to 321,000 in December.

U.S. corporates reporting quarterly results on Thursday include AT&T, Caterpillar, Lockheed Martin and Starbucks. Below, a roundup of tomorrow’s big announcers.

Time Warner Cable (TWC): $1.21
Airgas (ARG): $0.97
Mead Johnson Nutrition (MJN): $0.51
Monster Worldwide (MWW): $0.12
Lockheed Martin (LMT): $1.94
Janus Capital Group (JNS): $0.15
Colgate-Palmolive (CL): $1.30
Consol Energy (CNX): $0.63
Raytheon (RTN): $1.34
Under Armour (UA): $0.61
Caterpillar (CAT): $1.73
Sherwin-Williams (SHW): $0.83
AT&T (T): $0.43
VeriSign (VRSN): $0.41
KLA-Tencor (KLAC): $0.66
Amgen (AMGN): $1.23
Juniper Networks (JNPR): $0.28
Starbucks (SBUX): $0.48
3M (MMM): $1.31
JetBlue Airways (JBLU): $0.03
Celgene (CELG): $1.05
United Continental Holdings (UAL): $0.12
Motorola Mobility (MMI): $0.22
Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY): $0.55
Amylin Pharmaceuticals (AMLN): -$0.97
JB Hunt Transport Services (JBHT): $0.58
DeVry (DV): $1.01

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• Here Are The Key Market Moving Events For Tuesday, January 24
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• Here Are The Key Market Moving Events For Friday, January 20

iOS devices like iPhones and iPads account for 92% of purchases made from a mobile device, GigaOM reports via a study by RichRelevance.

Additionally, while mobile only accounts for 3.74% of total online retail sales, mobile shoppers tend to be big spenders.

The average order made from an iOS device is $123, while the average order made from an Android device is $101.

RichRelevance’s data comes from 3.4 billion online shopping sessions between April and December 2011.

Don’t Miss: Here Are The Best iPhone And iPad Apps You Missed This Week >

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NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. shoppers are still spending heavily online after a record-busting “Cyber Monday,” research firm comScore Inc. said Sunday.

The firm, which tracks Web use, found shoppers spent nearly $6 billion online on Monday through Friday last week — a record.

On Cyber Monday itself, sales reached $1.25 billion, the biggest online shopping day in history. Online sales on Tuesday and Wednesday also broke $1 billion.

Cyber Monday sales topped $1 billion for the first time last year.

ComScore says online sales are up 15 percent to $18.7 billion in November and the first two days of December, compared with the same period last year.

The holiday shopping season can make up to 40 percent of retailers’ annual revenue. This year’s holiday shopping has risen with help from discounting and promotions.

Free shipping also appears to be a big draw, applying to 63 percent of sales, up from 52 percent a year ago.

“Consumers have come to expect free shipping during the holiday promotion periods, and retailers, in turn, have realized that they must offer this incentive,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni in a statement.

Online shopping accounts for between 8 and 10 percent of overall holiday spending, by various estimates. ComScore’s spending figures exclude travel, auctions and large corporate purchases.

Spending on items including clothing, general merchandise, toys and electronics and in department stores, rose 4.7 percent to $125 billion in the Oct. 30 to Nov. 26 period, according to MasterCard Advisor’s SpendingPulse. That includes online buying and spending in physical stores.

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• November Retail Sales Show Black Friday Was Even Better Than Expected
• REVEALED: The One Region Of America Where The Economy Is Slowing Down
• A Closer Look At China’s Disappointing PMI Number

Don’t blame yourself if you missed a few key things this week. Even with one eye on CNBC and the other on your Bloomberg terminal, it’s likely you’d only remember job announcement after job announcement and a few central bank coordinated actions.

First came ADP Private Payrolls, which blew past expectations, adding 206,000 jobs. That topped estimates that called for only 130,000. Then initial claims rolled through, topping 400,000 again and taking some bite from the market.

Finishing the week was Friday’s announcement that the unemployment rate fell to 8.6% even as job creation missed projections.

But that wasn’t all that happened.

New Home Sales Slow Down

New home sales data released this week underwhelmed investors, when it averaged an annual rate of 307,000 sales. That was slightly below expectations of 315,000. At the same time, the Case-Shiller Index showed home prices declined 3.6%. However, in some good news, pending home sales for October beat estimates handily, with the National Association of Realtors Index gaining 10.4%. Expectations were for 2.0% while September’s sales had contracted -4.6%.

U.S. Auto and Retail Sales Post Solid Growth

November retail and auto results were announced this week, with both industries posting strong gains. In retail, Costco continued to post break-neck comparable sales growth, up 9.0% on $7.1 billion of sales. Over in autos, Chrysler saw deliveries climb 45% to 107,172 units. In the SUV segment, General Motors said sales of its Silverado pickup increased 34% to 34,251 units, while Ford saw even greater gains from its Explorer, which had sales up 217% to 12,888.

Canadian and Italian Unemployment Rates Rise

Canadian unemployment increased to 7.4% as the country shed 18,600 jobs. Analysts had predicted that job growth would accelerate by 20,000 new positions during November. That follows October’s loss of 54,000 jobs, which surprised economists. Quebec and Saskatchewan saw employment decline during the month, while it increased in Nova Scotia. Other provinces saw little change. Elsewhere, Italy also saw its jobless rate increase during the month, now at 8.5%.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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See Also:

• Detroit Dominates As The Auto Industry Roars Back To Life
• November Retail Sales Show Black Friday Was Even Better Than Expected
• Goldman: These 7 Things Could Derail The Economy In 2012

Don’t blame yourself if you missed a few key things this week. Even with one eye on CNBC and the other on your Bloomberg terminal, it’s likely you’d only remember job announcement after job announcement and a few central bank coordinated actions.

First came ADP Private Payrolls, which blew past expectations, adding 206,000 jobs. That topped estimates that called for only 130,000. Then initial claims rolled through, topping 400,000 again and taking some bite from the market.

Finishing the week was Friday’s announcement that the unemployment rate fell to 8.6% even as job creation missed projections.

But that wasn’t all that happened.

New Home Sales Slow Down

New home sales data released this week underwhelmed investors, when it averaged an annual rate of 307,000 sales. That was slightly below expectations of 315,000. At the same time, the Case-Shiller Index showed home prices declined 3.6%. However, in some good news, pending home sales for October beat estimates handily, with the National Association of Realtors Index gaining 10.4%. Expectations were for 2.0% while September’s sales had contracted -4.6%.

U.S. Auto and Retail Sales Post Solid Growth

November retail and auto results were announced this week, with both industries posting strong gains. In retail, Costco continued to post break-neck comparable sales growth, up 9.0% on $7.1 billion of sales. Over in autos, Chrysler saw deliveries climb 45% to 107,172 units. In the SUV segment, General Motors said sales of its Silverado pickup increased 34% to 34,251 units, while Ford saw even greater gains from its Explorer, which had sales up 217% to 12,888.

Canadian and Italian Unemployment Rates Rise

Canadian unemployment increased to 7.4% as the country shed 18,600 jobs. Analysts had predicted that job growth would accelerate by 20,000 new positions during November. That follows October’s loss of 54,000 jobs, which surprised economists. Quebec and Saskatchewan saw employment decline during the month, while it increased in Nova Scotia. Other provinces saw little change. Elsewhere, Italy also saw its jobless rate increase during the month, now at 8.5%.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Please follow Money Game on Twitter and Facebook.

See Also:

• Detroit Dominates As The Auto Industry Roars Back To Life
• November Retail Sales Show Black Friday Was Even Better Than Expected
• Goldman: These 7 Things Could Derail The Economy In 2012

While the markets loved this week’s coordinated central bank action to calm investors panicky over Europe, I was more impressed with the strength of the U.S. economy.

Strong retail sales, an improving employment report, falling gasoline prices, rising auto sales, and an improvement in the U.S. purchasing managers report all paint a picture of a stronger U.S. economy.

Even as it appears that Europe may drift into a quarter of two of contraction (according to the Organization of Economic Corporation and Development), the U.S. appears to be poised to grow by 2.5%-3% in the fourth quarter and at least 2% in the first quarter of 2012.

 While we all to need to be vigilant about the possibility of some type of European financial contagion, I wonder whether we just might have it backwards. Instead of Europe dragging the U.S. into a recession, could the U.S. drag the rest of the world into better times?

With goods (at least half manufactured overseas, according to an ABC news report) flying off U.S. shelves, can U.S. consumers pull foreign manufacturers out of their soft patch? While not the most likely case, it is worth considering that the U.S could recapture its role as an engine of worldwide growth.

November’s government employment report supported my thesis that employment is continuing its slow but steady progress. As regular readers know, I prefer to look at employment on a three-month average, year-over-year basis to eliminate antiquated seasonality factors and month-specific issues such as weather and strikes.

Employment Still Has Room for Improvement

Though economists date the end of the recession as June 2009, private employment continued to decline another eight months until February 2010.  From peak to trough we lost 8.9 million private sector jobs according to the official establishment survey.

Since the February 2010 bottom, we have recovered only 3.0 million of those lost private sector jobs. Construction employment still remains down over that same period. Overall, the 3 million jobs that were created translate into 140,000-150,000 jobs per month.

The raw numbers showed an increase of 140,000 private sector jobs added in November, close to the average noted above. That was an improvement from the 117,000 jobs added in October but not as robust as the 220,000 jobs added in September (aided by a return of 50,000 Verizon

Revisions in the employment sector continued to run rampant. September total employment (including both private sector and government workers) was revised up to 210,000 workers from 158,000, while the October figure was moved up to 100,000 from 80,000.

This means that both personal income and consumption data will likely be revised upward (the first run of the personal income report is constructed from employment data multiplied by average wages and is later revised based on actual payroll data) explaining at least part of the mystery of why retail sales have “apparently” been trouncing income growth since late this past summer. 

Unemployment Plunges, Half Due to People Leaving the Workforce, Half Finding Jobs

The unemployment rate made a stunning drop to 8.6% from 9.0% beating just about every forecaster’s estimate. But half that decline was due to people leaving the workforce, half from people actually finding work. Without those people leaving the workforce, the unemployment rate would still have fallen–but to 8.8% from 9.0%.

I honestly don’t know what to make of the decline in the number of people seeking employment. It’s unusual at this stage of a recovery to see so many people continuing to drop out. The usual explanation is discouraged workers giving up even looking. But the lack of participation could also be attributed to people going back to school or training to learn a new profession. Certainly a rise in long-term disability claims and early social security benefits are causing a decline in the ranks of the unemployed. And as more workers hit the end-of-the-line 99 weeks of benefits, they may decide that they really didn’t want to/need to work after all (now that they can’t collect a monthly check).

Household Employment Survey on Fire

On the employment side, employment growth per household survey (which is used for the calculation of the unemployment rate but not for the single-point job growth figure) is on a tear.

Employment growth has averaged more than 300,000 over the past four months in the household survey versus 140,000 according the more widely cited establishment survey. The household survey badly lagged the establishment survey earlier in the year. As the table below shows, over time the two series tend to converge.

I surmise that the incredible strength in the household survey might leak into the establishment report in the months ahead. This potential leakage is a real possibility since the household survey does a better job of capturing new small businesses and self-employment.

A Lower Unemployment Rate Is Nice, but Job Growth Is the Key Metric

While the lower unemployment rate makes for nice headlines, and maybe makes consumers feel a little better, it is really the number of new jobs that will move the economy forward. As I indicated, the improvement on the jobs front was good, though not nearly as good as this month’s plunge in unemployment. And while the job growth rate seems well-entrenched, a bounce back in the unemployment rate looks like it might be in the cards, given the volatility in the labor force participation rate.

Retail Hiring Drove the Employment Report

By category, there wasn’t really much new in the employment report with the exception of retail, which jumped by 50,000 jobs in just one month. I’d say longer store hours this holiday season are responsible for some of the increase; unfortunately, that is likely to reverse itself at the end of the holiday season. The jump in retail employment, a relatively lower-wage and lower-hours category, definitely put a lid on both the hours worked and hourly wage statistics; they were basically unchanged. Two higher-paying categories, construction and manufacturing, didn’t fare as well; the construction industry showed yet another decline, and manufacturing hiring was basically on hold in November.

Retail Sales Held Their Own Despite Tough Comparison

November data from the International Council of Shopping Centers continue to paint a relatively optimistic picture. While the table below shows a slowing trend, further analysis suggests that retail is doing just fine, thanks. November of last year was one of the strongest months of 2010, making it a very tough comparison. Also, the tailwind from higher gasoline prices for retailers that sell gas (think wholesale clubs like Costco is finally beginning to fade. Some trends, including holiday shoppers that have yet to set foot in a store, strong weekly data, collapsing gasoline prices, and an easier comparison all suggest December’s sales might look a little better.

The ICSC indicated that 28% of holiday shoppers had yet to set foot in a store compared with 26% last year, potentially indicating that sales won’t peter out in December the way they did in 2010. Furthermore, sales in November were strongest at the end of the month, unlike last year. Weekly retail sales jumped 4% year over year for the latest week ending Nov. 26, though warm weather and big discounts certainly helped things along. For now, gasoline prices are behaving themselves too, leaving more money to spend elsewhere. The 4% growth rate was the best reported since July, at least on a weekly basis.

U.S. Purchasing Managers Survey Outshines the Rest of the World

Based on recent strong industrial production numbers and non-transportation-related orders, I concluded that the manufacturing economy was on the mend. This month’s purchasing managers report did nothing to deter my optimism. Eric Landry, director of our industrials team, summed up the report as follows:

ISM’s strong showing indicates manufacturing activity ending the year in impressive fashion. The November purchasing managers survey, at 52.7, was an impressive 1.9 percent higher than October and the highest reading since June’s 55.3. At a time when the rest of the world is registering sub-50 PMI readings, the ability of U.S. manufacturing to post an increase is impressive to say the least. What’s more, the internals of the report are just as encouraging.

New orders increased 4.3 points and now sit at their highest level since April, while inventories remain at levels of less than 50, indicating there is likely no overstock problem. The forward-looking new orders/inventories ratio sits at 1.17, its highest level since March. Elsewhere, production rose by 6.5 points to 56.6 and prices by 4 to 45. The latter, though up from October, remains well below the highs set in early 2011, meaning purchasing managers see materials inflation as much less of a threat now than several months ago. Even exports were up 2 points, which is odd considering the sorry state of most of the rest of the developed world and China’s manufacturing slowdown.

Unfortunately Purchasing Manager Data from the Rest of the World Wasn’t Nearly as Bright

Manufacturing data from the rest of the world looked pretty bleak. Without getting bogged down in the numbers, China’s index hit a 32-month low, while both Europe and the U.K. hit a 28-month low. Falling export demand, a bigger factor for China and Europe, might explain why the U.S. fared better than the rest of the world.

The Auto Industry Is at Least Partially Responsible for Strong PMI Data

I have long held the suspicion that the auto industry holds tremendous sway over the purchasing managers survey, and this year certainly supports my thesis. Supply chain disruptions this summer caused the PMI to plummet, and now that the auto industry has rebounded, so has the U.S. PMI. November was another excellent month for the auto industry as our auto industry analyst David Whiston explains:

Auto OEMs enjoy strong November SAAR. Automakers reported November new U.S. light-vehicle sales on Thursday that posted the best seasonally adjusted annualized selling rate (SAAR) this year, the best SAAR since Cash for Clunkers’ 13.69 million in August 2009, and the biggest year-over-year volume increase since April. It was also the best November since 2007. The SAAR came in at 13.63 million vehicles per Automotive News, which beat the previous 2011 high of 13.29 million in February. In absolute terms, November sales totaled 994,786, up 13.9% from November 2010. November was the third consecutive month of a SAAR of over 13 million units, which suggests to us pent-up demand is finally starting to be absorbed by consumers. We have long argued that having several years of sales at or below replacement levels is not sustainable and we think that, barring another major supply shock, we will see our thesis begin to play out next year.

Every major OEM except Honda in inventory replacement from the earthquake and Thai flooding. Chrysler had its best increase since exiting bankruptcy with a 45% year-over-year increase boosted by contribution from all of its brands. According to TrueCar.com, average industry incentive levels declined 0.5% from November 2010 to $2,534, but this level was a 2.5% increase from October 2011. We expect higher incentive activity in December relative to November, but we also expect solid ASPs as there is no need for any automaker to drastically overproduce anymore.

Housing News Mixed, Again

After several months of mostly good news, the most recent months of data were more ambivalent. Following five months of improvement in the Case-Shiller index of home prices, the index declined 0.6% from September. Taking a longer view of the data, year-over-year national prices for the third quarter were down 3.6%.  Compared with the 30% or so decline during the recession, another small decline is no reason to panic. On the positive side, pending home sales jumped over 10.4% from September and 9.7% from a year ago. Usually that would be enough to get me very excited about existing home sales and the economy. Lately, however, many homes that went under contract (pending sales) have not closed (as measured by existing home sales) because of mortgage or appraisal issues. Maybe with the new lower prices, more of these deals will close, but I’m not holding my breath.

In neutral territory was the new home sales report, which remained mired in the mud at 307,000 units. Existing home inventories remained at a record low level of 162,000 which seem de minimis compared to over 70 million existing housing units. The good news is that conditions in the new home market can’t get much worse from here.

Thin Week of Data Ahead

Next week I don’t expect much market-moving economic news other than the trade report, which is expected to remain virtually unchanged at $43 billion for October compared with September. On Monday we will also learn whether the services side of the economy continues to improve with the release of the ISM’s report on nonmanufacturing industries. The consensus looks a tad optimistic to me as investors expect an increase to 53.9 from 52.9. Services have been a real laggard this recovery, and some good news here could provide a real boost to GDP.

Following Up: Boeing Labor Issue and U.S. Energy Independence

Boeing has been an engine of both export and manufacturing growth for some time. With 737 production ramping up and new versions on the drawing board, along with the first shipments of the 787 Dreamliner and a great looking order book, Boeing is poised to be a big help to the U.S. economy.

As I reported in my last quarterly piece, that position was threatened by a labor dispute concerning moving some Dreamliner production to a nonunion plant in South Carolina. It now appears the issue has been resolved, as noted in this Wall Street Journal article.

In my column two weeks ago, I was pretty fired up about the potential resurgence of the U.S. oil industry. Since then, the issue has gained more visibility, with the WSJ reporting that the U.S. has become a net exporter of petroleum products (products, not crude oil) for the first time in 62 years. And sister publication MarketWatch chipped in with a long article on our booming natural gas industry.

This post originally appeared at Morningstar.

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See Also:

• The Truth About The Falling Unemployment Mirage In 3 Charts
• The Federal Reserve Did Everything In Its Power To Save Banks And Nothing To Save Jobs
• FEDEX: The Economy Is Still Growing, And Will Grow Next Year As Well

US futures are off modestly in the wake of S&P’s big downgrade of the banks. Nothing too dramatic, however.

Japan is off a bit deeper, however.

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• European Banks Frantically Trying To Dump $7 Trillion Of Crap Assets — But No One Will Buy Them
• CITI: Gorgeous Black Friday Weather Is Great For November Retail Sales
• STOCKS GO NOWHERE AND EUROPE GOES DEEPER INTO CHAOS: Here’s What You Need To Know

US futures are off modestly in the wake of S&P’s big downgrade of the banks. Nothing too dramatic, however.

Japan is off a bit deeper, however.

Please follow Money Game on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• European Banks Frantically Trying To Dump $7 Trillion Of Crap Assets — But No One Will Buy Them
• CITI: Gorgeous Black Friday Weather Is Great For November Retail Sales
• STOCKS GO NOWHERE AND EUROPE GOES DEEPER INTO CHAOS: Here’s What You Need To Know

Despite stores offering tempting cut-price deals, shoppers are in a cautious mood in the run up to Christmas according to a high street banking report.

Although retail sales were up in October, there was little demand for loans and overdrafts according the British Bankers’ Association (BBA), and while consumers spent a total of £7.2 billion on plastic, they repaid £7.4 billion.

This continued a trend from September which also saw a higher level of repayments than new spending, with £6.9 billion being spent on cards and £7.2 billion being paid back.

There was some indication that people could be turning to their savings to fund Christmas, as the value of personal savings and deposits in high street banks fell by £900 million to £644.1 billion.

However, this figure does include current accounts as well as savings accounts.

According to BBA, 76,042 mortgages were approved in October, a slight increase from the previous month, but a substantial 16 per cent higher than the number approved in October 2010.

Gross mortgage lending totalled £8bn in October, slightly lower than in the previous month, reflecting a general unpredictability in the mortgage market.

A cautious approach to spending was also highlighted in a study by Legal and General in which 31 per cent of those questioned said they planned to reduce their spending on presents this year, while 51 per cent said they planned to spend the same as last year.

The survey revealed that around 1.6 million families could find Christmas unaffordable.

Families in London and the West Midlands are struggling the most, with 60 per cent of families in these regions saying they can’t afford the cost of presents and Christmas celebrations.

Legal and General’s research indicates that almost 80 per cent of households are worse off this year than they were last year.