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Alisa Roth: There’s not much in the way of business news to tell you this morning. Except perhaps that the Dow was down 211 points on Wednesday. And the same story that happens on this day every year. While much of the nation is powering down, a slice of it is gearing up.

As you know, today’s the day you’re supposed to eat your self silly. Tomorrow’s the day they’re hoping you’ll go shopping. Alisa Roth says the twist is that this year, tomorrow’s encroaching on today.

Alisa Roth: It’s not your imagination. I know — it seems like the Halloween candy has barely been discounted, but . . .

[MUSIC: It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas]

Joel Naroff: Cutting prices and putting up decorations and trying to convince the radio stations to play the holiday music early is I think part and parcel of the attempts to make sure the sales start and keep going.

Economist Joel Naroff says stores are discounting early, hoping to avoid panic sales on Christmas Eve. But look at some of the brazen sales tactics out there and you might think stores are trying to induce panic — in their customers.

CompUSA started an online sale at 12:01 this morning. Their retail stores are open from
9 to midnight tonight. Don’t worry about missing Thanksgiving dessert — they’re handing out pumpkin pie.

Attention K-Mart shoppers: Those stores opened at 7 this morning. And JC Penney and Kohl’s stores will be open at 4 a.m. tomorrow. No excuses for not maxing out your credit cards.

In New York, I’m Alisa Roth for Marketplace.