Scant festive cheer for US stores

Analysts expect US holiday spending to miss retailers' targets

Last-minute shoppers boosted US retail sales in the run-up to Christmas, but not by as much as stores had expected.

Analysts reported a surge in takings on the Friday and Saturday before Christmas, but said mild weather and other factors had dampened demand.

One retail expert, Bill Martin of Shoppertrak, predicted that this season's holiday spending would fail to meet forecasts of 5% growth.

However, hopes are still high that post-Christmas sales will save the day.

In other US economic news, sales of new homes rose by 3.4% in November compared with the previous month, but fell by 15% compared with the same month last year.

However, the median price of a new home continued to rise, climbing from $248,500 (£127,481) in October to $251,700 last month.

Slower growth

The National Retail Federation, which represents the US retail industry, continues to predict growth of 5% in total sales over the holiday period.

But Shoppertrak, which tracks trade at more than 45,000 outlets, said that while growth would be at least 4.5%, it would probably not meet the federation's target.

Shoppertrak said sales during last week were 5.2% higher than the same period last year, but footfall was 1.3% lower, suggesting more money was being spent by fewer shoppers.

Another report, from the International Council of Shopping Centers, indicated that last week's like-for-like sales, which strip out the impact of new store openings, were just 2% higher than the previous week and 1.7% higher than a year ago.

However, the council's chief economist, Michael Niemira, told the Associated Press news agency that he was counting on post-Christmas shoppers to help salvage the season.