Has the US Presidential election cast a shadow on Black Friday 2016?

As US President-elect Donald Trump gears up to take office from the 44th and current President of the United States, pundits are having a field day trying to estimate the impact that will likely have on the US citizens. Among the immediate concerns is the impact the election result will have on the holiday spending, especially Black Friday on November 25, 2016.

While some are ambivalent about it, most media reports have indicated that Black Friday might not see as spectacular spending as expected. According to a news article, this year, Veterans Day - the first peak of several peak spending days during the holiday season – failed to kick off holiday spending. It was reported that the sales were $380 million lower than expected, at $1.16 billion. Quoting Adobe Digital Insights, the report indicated that the sales registered a measly 1% growth over a year earlier, against the predicted growth of 16%.

Another report quoting data from Adobe says that between November 1 and November 14, retailers have lost over $800 million in revenue from online sales. The sharpest drop occurred after the election, with total sales growth slowing to only 1.3%, against Adobe's prediction for growth of 7.8%.

What’s Black Friday?

The day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, Black Friday marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Since 1932, on the fourth Thursday of November, most major retailers in the US open very early – as early as overnight hours - and offer promotional sales.

Touted as the busiest shopping day of the year since 2005, the term Black Friday was coined in 1961. It represented the point in the year when retailers begin to turn a profit, thus going from being "in the red" to being "in the black".

But Black Friday as the kickoff to the holiday spending season has not been a real trend in retail for many years now. Many retailers have now spread out their promotions over full months of November and December, rather than concentrate them on a single shopping day or weekend.

Trumping over Black Friday. Read more.

US presidential election 2016 results

US Election 2016: Hillary Clinton has 70 per cent chance of winning, says pollster

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has a 70 per cent chance of winning the White House race against her Republican rival Donald Trump, a top American pollster has said on the eve of what is being described as the most crucial election in decades.

"Hillary Clinton has a 70 per cent chance of winning the election," said FiveThirtyEight website's Nate Silver, who accurately predicted the outcome of 2008 and 2012 presidential elections.

This is up from a 65 per cent chance on Sunday night, so Clinton, 69, has had a good run in the polls in the final days of the campaign, he said.(more)

Trump beating Clinton in Google searches

Donald Trump might be trailing in surveys but the Republican nominee is more popular than his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in Google searches in the US.

Data released by Google shows Trump dominating search in 38 states till Monday, including in the battleground states of Florida and Michigan.

Google data also shows that immigration is the top Trump-related search topic, followed by abortion and race issues, Fox News reported.(more)

US Presidential polls: Voters comes out in large numbers, 46.2 million votes already cast

A record 46.2 million of the estimated 200 million voter shave exercised their franchise in the 2016 US presidential elections before the official voting day, surpassing the 2012 record when 32.3 million people had voted in advance.

Experts said the massive turn out in 2016 general elections in early voting reflects the change in the voting patterns of Americans.

"Some voters are clearly changing as they opted to vote early instead of the election day," said Michael McDonald, an early-voting expert who runs the elections project.(more)

Live blog : US presidential election 2016 results

US presidential debate: Poll says 62% viewers think Clinton won, only 27% say Trump did better

US presidential debate: Poll says 62% viewers think Clinton won, only 27% say Trump did better

Democrat Hillary Clinton is held to have won the first presidential debate held on Tuesday against her Republican rival Donald Trump, according to a new CNN/ORC poll.

According to the poll of debate watchers, 62 per cent of voters who watched the debate thought Clinton won, while only 27 per cent said that Trump came out on top.

Clinton and Trump took to the stage on Tuesday to begin their first-ever presidential debate and immediately sparred over jobs, taxes, the Islamic State (IS), guns and the former secretary of state's undisclosed emails, media reports said.

Here is what both candidates had to say on various issues:
On prosperity, taxes and jobs

Moderator Leslie Holt of NBC News opened the 90-minute debate at Hofstra University, Long Island, New York, with the first topic being "Achieving Prosperity", where the first question about putting money back into Americans' pockets and creating jobs was directed to Clinton,CNN reported.

Clinton, the first woman to represent a major US party in the presidential race, mentioned her granddaughter's birthday, and talked about everything from gender pay gaps, to paid family leave, to presidential temperament.

She started her speech by defending the idea of creating "an economy for all" and stressed that she intends to do so "by having the wealthy pay their fair share", EFE news reported.

"I also want to see more companies do profit sharing. If you help create the profits, you should be able to share in them, not just the executives at the top," she said, and stressed that "the central question in this election is really what kind of country we want to be in".Read full Article

Donald Trump's paid maternity leave plan gets Hillary Clinton rejoinder

Donald Trump's paid maternity leave plan gets Hillary Clinton rejoinder

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has introduced an unorthodox childcare plan, becoming a rare Republican calling for paid maternity leave.

Introduced on Tuesday by his daughter Ivanka, who asserted that childcare issues were at the "root of wage inequality by disproportionately affecting women", Trump tried to soften his image at an event held in Pennsylvania, a former stronghold for moderate Republicans that has trended Democratic in recent years, the Guardianreported.

Trump also asserted that "my opponent has no childcare plan". Clinton has in fact made a number of detailed proposals on childcare.

Clinton in June last year first outlined a programme for universal pre-kindergarten and in May this year proposed to cap childcare costs at ten per cent of household income and to introduce 12 weeks of paid family leave.

Maya Harris, a senior policy adviser to Clinton, described Trump's plan as "half-baked and completely out of touch".

Trump's proposal came as he faces a major deficit among college-educated white women in polls.

According to a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has a 50-40 lead over her Republican rival in a demographic that Mitt Romney won by six points in 2012 despite his decisive loss that year.

Trump called for making a childcare tax deductible, up to the average cost in a given family's state, until the age of 13, as well as an expanded rebate of up to $1,200 for those families that do not pay income tax and receive earned income tax credit (EITC).Read more

Clinton's national lead over Trump touches double digit

Clinton's national lead over Trump touches double digit

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has gained a double digit national lead over her Republican rival Donald Trump who has been going through a rough patch over the past few weeks, according to a latest poll.

"The Clinton-Kaine ticket leads the Trump-Pence ticket by 10 points (49-39 per cent) in the race for the White House," Fox News said as it released results of its first poll after the conclusion of the back to back conventions last week.

While Senator Tim Kaine from Virginia is the vice presidential running mate of Clinton, Governor Mike Penceis Trump's running mate.

Clinton's double digit lead is considered to be significant as it is outside the margin of error.

A month ago, Clinton was up by six points (44-38 per cent, June 26-28), the report said.

According to the poll, however, 61 per cent of the respondents think Clinton is dishonest.

According to the report, Democrat is winning among the "Obama coalition", the key voting blocs that secured his re-election.(more)

Donald Trump 'unfit' to serve as US President: Barack Obama

Donald Trump 'unfit' to serve as US President: Barack Obama

US President Barack Obama on Tuesday declared Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump "unfit" to serve as President and lambasted Republicans for sticking with the businessman-turned-politician.

The strong rebuke came after Trump's criticism of the family of a slain Muslim US soldier, along with comments that displayed apparent confusion related to the Russian incursion into Ukraine, CNN reported.

"The Republican nominee is unfit to serve as President," Obama said at a White House news conference with the Prime Minister of Singapore. "He keeps on proving it."

The Trump campaign responded by going after the Democratic nominee as well as the President.

"Hillary Clinton has proven herself unfit to serve in any government office," a Trump statement said, listing a number of policy concerns. "Obama-Clinton have single-handedly destabilised the Middle East, handed Iraq, Libya and Syria to ISIS, and allowed our personnel to be slaughtered at Benghazi."

Obama on Tuesday described his feelings about Trump as unprecedented, recalling disagreements with previous GOP presidential nominees Senator John McCain and Mitt Romney -- but never an outright sense they were unfit to serve.(more)

Hillary Clinton most qualified to lead the US: Barack Obama

Hillary Clinton most qualified to lead the US: Barack Obama

"There has never been a man or a woman, not me, not Bill (Clinton), more qualified to be president", declared US President Barack Obama while endorsing Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination on Wednesday night.

Making a surprise appearance at the ongoing Democratic National Convention here, Obama praised his one-time rival, Clinton, whom he defeated eight years ago, as the candidate who could accomplish all that needs yet to be done.

He proudly listed his achievements and said more was needed to be accomplished and Hillary Clinton was the leader to do it.

"Our country is stronger, more prosperous than when we started," he said and ridiculed Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's assertions that the US was a failing "crime scene".

He also praised former presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders for his efforts to end the role of money in politics and to promote a progressive agenda.Read more.

Donald Trump names Chris Christie as head of his transition team

Donald Trump, the Republican presidential presumptive nominee, on Monday named the New Jersey Governor Chris Christie as the head of his transition team.

The role of a transition team would come into play only after Trump wins the November general elections and entails preparing for a potential transfer of power and selection of White House administration staff.

The real estate mogul became the presumptive Republican presidential nominee about a week ago when he won the Indiana primary and two of his rivals, Ted Cruz and John Kasich, dropped out of the race.

"Christie is an extremely knowledgeable and loyal person with the tools and resources to put together an unparallelled transition team, one that will be prepared to take over the White House when we win in November," Trump said in a statement.

Christie will serve as transition team chairman, overseeing an extensive team of professionals preparing to take over the White House, and all that entails, the statement added.Read More.