White Christmases are nice. Retailers would prefer a green one.

From Marketplace, I'm Sabrie Beneschoor, and for David Brancaccio.

First, the House has passed a stopgap funding measure to avoid a government shutdown Friday.

The bill does not include funding for Ukraine or Israel, border security measures, or additional

funding for a federal nutrition program for women and children the president wanted decisions on all those get delayed

it's now up to the Senate which has till Friday to pass the bill we are going to get

some clues real soon on how this year's holiday shopping season will pan out.

Quarter to leak results from Target and Walmart plus retail sales numbers for

October all coming out today and tomorrow.

Marketplace's Nova Safo has more.

Retail sales are expected to increase during this holiday shopping period, but likely at the

slowest pace in several years, and just about enough only to keep up with inflation. So many retailers are being

cautious heading into the final months of the year. Take forecasts yesterday from

Home Depot in a call with analysts. Merchandising Chief Billy Bastic said they're

already seeing shoppers pulling back a bit.

We saw the continuation of a trend that we have been observing throughout the year.

With softness in certain big tickets, discretionary type purchases. Instead of engaging in larger projects

customers continue to take on smaller projects. That kind of lackluster spending is unlikely to

power Home Depot to a strong year-end finish.

For the first time since the Great Recession, the company predicted that its sales will decline

this year.

The nation's biggest retailer, Walmart, skipped the usual seasonal worker-h hiring binge heading into the holidays

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