This Christmas shopping season is not such a holly-jolly time to be a retailer. Winter goods have arrived late. Temporary employees are hard to find. And if those challenges weren’t enough, a new Covid-19 variant is threatening to put a fresh pandemic damper on the holidays.

Dear shopper, how are you doing? Wall Street is dying to know. Investors and market strategists are poring over a spate of economic data and commentary from corporate earnings calls, trying to determine how people feel about spending money in these strange times.

It was the sound of glass shattering. I raced around the house searching for broken windows because it was the only thing I could think of in that frazzled moment to explain the clamor.