A jump in purchases the week before Christmas helped year-over-year electronics sales increase 5.9 percent from Nov. 1 to Dec. 24, MasterCard Advisors' SpendingPulse said in a statement. Jewelry and luxury sales also gained, the research firm said.

The increase may signal that revenue at retailers will beat trade groups’ forecasts for the two-month period ending Jan. 2. Shoppers resumed purchasing this season as consumer confidence rebounded from a record low in February.

"We saw a nice little surge toward the end of the season," with the pace picking up Dec. 22, 23 and 24, said Michael McNamara, a vice president for research and analysis at SpendingPulse, in a Bloomberg Television interview today. "Last year, we were in critical condition, this year, in stable."

"Things have stopped getting worse," Jorn Lambert, head of the credit-card company's "core products" for Europe, said on the sidelines of a luxury industry conference in Monaco today. The 17 percent year-on-year drop was smaller than the figure for April, he said.

U.S. spending via MasterCard fell 8 percent in the first quarter of 2009, Lambert said. About 1.6 billion cardholders spend $2.5 trillion a year through their MasterCards.

Lambert said MasterCard compiles the data by tracking the 10 percent of U.S. retailers selling apparel or leather goods, including department stores, with the highest retail price.