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this is the "cbs evening news" ningh scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. mark the calendar: tonight we maybe experiencing the biggest heles day in the history of the in the his and that comes after the biggest an black friday ever. they call this cyber monday and the people who tally up online lly upng say americans are on track to spend a projecting $1.2 billion today alone. that's up 17% from last year. the stock market, like the sound ef all those mouse clicks, the dow closed up 291 points. big sales matter because consumer spending accounts for 70% of the u.s. economy. .ill it...

for retailers. >> it's all crazy all over the place. a little too much but i figured this year why not. >> reporter: foot traffic was up more than 5% from last year, almost a quart over black friday shoppers were in stores by midnight thursday according to the national retail federation which estimated spending for shoppers jumped 9% for the post-thanksgiving weekend why do you think sales were so strong? >> the consumer is much stronger and healthier than people understand. >> reporter: retail analyst craig johnson says americans have been paying down their debt. four years ago the ...

big sales matter because consumer spending accounts for 70% of the u.s. economy. will it last? we asked senior business correspondent anthony mason to look into it. >> reporter: the black friday weekend is the starting gun for the holiday shopping season and it went off with a bang. sales on black friday alone were up 6.6% to more than $11 billion making it the biggest shopping day ever according to shoppertrak. >> if i wait until later i won't get any good items. >> reporter: big discounts and earlier opening hours paid off for retailers. >> it's all crazy all over the place. a litt...