Shares of Wayfair Inc. were up 7% in midday trading Wednesday after the online home-goods retailer provided information about its holiday-weekend performance and signaled that business trends have recently improved. Wayfair disclosed in a filing that it saw a low-single-digit increase in U.S. sales during the five-day span from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, relative to a year before. Chief Executive Niraj Shah added in the filing that “leading up to Cyber Five, our November year-over-year revenue trends strengthened relative to the down 10 percent quarter-to-date update we shared on our recent conference call, with the Cyber Five period itself comping flat for the company.” The November sales data come during a period when inflation has been up nearly 8%. William Blair analyst Phillip Blee wrote that “the better-than-expected sales trends could provide upside to the company’s fourth-quarter earnings expectations where Wayfair’s inventory-light supplier model is particularly beneficial, enabling promotion-led traffic and conversion growth while largely maintaining product margins.” Even with Wednesday’s rally, the stock is set to be down more than 10% for the month of November and log its 13th monthly decline in the past 15 months.
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