US retailers report falling sales

Discount retailers are holding up much better than luxury goods stores

Some of the best-known retailers in the US have reported falling sales in March as consumers continued to shop cautiously in the run up to Easter.

Figures from The International Council of Shopping Centers showed sales for March fell by 2.1% from a year earlier.

But the falls were smaller than many analysts had expected, suggesting that US shoppers are feeling a bit more confident about the economic outlook.

Sales at Wal-Mart rose by 1.4% for the month, worse than had been forecast.

Easter sales

Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, said its disappointing sales were down to the late Easter this year.

"Based on the initial strength of our sales this week, we expect Easter to drive April sales performance," said Wal-Mart vice chairman Eduardo Castro-Wright.

It looks like there is a bit of an uptick, some pent-up demand for discretionary spending Ken Perkins, Retail Metrics

Rival discounter Target saw sales drop, as did warehouse operator Costco, but both performed better than analysts had expected.

Department stores Macy's and JC Penney also saw sales drop, but again by less than had been forecast.

Luxury goods were hardest hit, with sales down by 20.3%, according to the ICSC. Department and clothing stores also saw big falls.

Discounters, however, saw sales drop by just 0.6%.

All the figures from the retailers and from the ICSC are like-for-like sales, which do not take into account sales from new stores opened in the previous 12 months.

'Mixed bag'

"Given the deluge of negative news we have seen in the retail space over the last several months, [the figures have] got to be encouraging," Ken Perkins at Retail Metrics said.

"It looks like there is a bit of an uptick, some pent-up demand for discretionary spending," he added.

The ICSC said that the late Easter had a negative impact on the sales figures, and that a clearer picture of US consumer spending would emerge when looking at March and April's figures together.

"It's a really mixed bag," said the council's chief economist Michael Niemira.

"On the surface, March is weaker than we've been seeing for the last few months but we know that's not the underlying trend.

"The tone and comments from retailers really reflect a better performance than reported, but the jury is still out on whether we really have stabilised," he said.