Ahead of the Bell: Retail Sales

Ahead of the Bell: Retail Sales

	Published : Tue, 16 Oct 2007 11:03 By : Agencies Print this Story

WASHINGTON (AP) - Wall Street on Tuesday will learn whether the unusually warm fall in the Midwest and Northeast continued to keep a lid on purchases of sweaters, coats and other seasonal apparel last week.

Two sets of weekly retail sales reports -- The International Council of Shopping Centers-UBS Index and the Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index -- are set for release at 7:45 a.m. EDT and 8:55 a.m. EDT, respectively. There are no consensus estimates available.

For the week ended Oct. 6, the ICSC-UBS Index, which tracks 53 stores, reported that same-store sales, or revenue gains at stores open at least a year, for the second week in a row remained unchanged compared with the prior week. Same-store sales climbed 2.1 percent from a year earlier.

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index, which monitors 9,000 retail units, said same-store sales edged up 1.8 percent for the week ended Oct. 6, compared with the year-ago period.

Same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, is a key indicator of retailer performance since it measures growth at existing stores rather than from newly opened ones.

Sales for the first week of October were sluggish as consumers continued to forego buying fall apparel due to the warmer weather, said Catlin Levis, a Johnson Redbook analyst in a note to clients.

Last week, a string of retailers including Target Corp., J.C. Penney Co., Limited Brands and Nordstrom Inc. cut their earnings outlook due to sluggish sales. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. was almost alone in raising its third-quarter profit projection, but that was primarily due to cost-cutting measures it undertook earlier this year.

For September, the ICSC-UBS tally of monthly retail sales rose a slim 1.7 percent, compared with 4.0 percent in the year-ago period. Excluding the impact of the weather, the results were in line with a 2.3 percent spending pace seen since February, the start of the fiscal year for merchants.

September sales reports among the nation's retailers showed that consumers continued to be weighed down by higher energy prices, a slumping housing market and tightening credit, leaving stores with bloated inventories. That's good news for shoppers who are likely to see generous discounts in the coming weeks as retailers seek to clear fall merchandise from their shelves.