Cyber Monday sales show trade war toll

US spending lags behind Europe in a rare reversal of the holiday trend

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Cyber Monday spending grew more slowly in the US than Europe, a new phenomenon that reflects the impact of President Donald Trump’s trade war and aggressive interest rate cuts by the European Central Bank, according to data released on Monday by Salesforce Inc.

Global online spending, mostly from Europe, increased 5.3 per cent as of noon New York time compared with the year ago period, while US spending rose by 2.6 per cent, according to Salesforce, which tracks transactions of 1.5 billion consumers. Salesforce said earlier that global Black Friday spending grew twice as fast as US sales.

Consumer confidence

Online holiday spending typically rises more quickly in the US, said Caila Schwartz, Salesforce’s director of consumer insights. She attributes this year’s result to tariff-stung US shoppers and the economic boost European countries are seeing from a series of interest rate cuts that began last year.