A financial analyst is reviewing a company's sales data using a visualization tool. The scatter plot of monthly advertising expense (x-axis) versus sales revenue (y-axis) shows a tight cluster of points rising from left to right, but one data point for December is located far above the cluster. Which of the following is the MOST appropriate interpretation and next step?

The correlation is negative; the analyst should recommend reducing advertising spend.

The December point represents an outlier that proves advertising is ineffective; exclude it from analysis.

The data indicates a strong positive correlation; the analyst should assume December's performance is due to the high advertising spend.

The data indicates a positive correlation, but the December outlier suggests a potential anomaly or seasonality; the analyst should investigate other drivers for that month.