Coming off of the holiday season, retailers continue to be an important gauge of how consumers are responding to the recovery. Some retailers’ results are still showing an area of concern while others have easily exceeded analysts’ expectations. The holiday shopping season was a pivotal time for most retailers as they tried to recover from a year of disappointing results fueled by the Great Recession. Now that the busiest shopping time of the year has wrapped up, fourth-quarter results are starting to pour in. Hasbro Inc., the toy manufacturer, reported a stronger-than-expected quarterly profit. How was the company able to exceed analysts’ expectations? Will the same level of momentum spill over into subsequent quarters or will the company shift back into reverse?