Retail purchases increased 0.5 percent, the third gain in the past four months, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. The Reuters/University of Michigans consumer sentiment gauge dropped to 73.7 from 74.4 the prior month.
The economic expansion is being fueled by gains in manufacturing and business investment that reflect growing demand from overseas and efforts to rebuild inventories. Americans, shaken by the loss of 8.4 million jobs during the recession, will probably be slow to regain the confidence needed to spearhead the next phase of the - - - - >

Net income may be 67.5 billion yen ($723 million) in the 12 months ending August, compared with its earlier estimate of 62 billion yen, the company said in a statement today. It posted a 49.8 billion yen profit a year earlier.
Hit products such as the +J line overseen by German designer Jil Sander led to a 40 percent surge in first-quarter sales, defying a slump in Japanese household spending amid job losses and falling wages. Chief Executive Officer Tadashi Yanai, Japans richest man, is expanding Uniqlo - - - - >

Aeropostale Inc.,Nordstrom Inc. and Kohls Corp. promoted lower prices on specific merchandise and managed inventory to outpace industry sales in November. They will probably say next week those gains continued in December, according to Liz Dunn, an analyst at Thomas Weisel Partners LLC in New York.
“They all did execute pretty well in response to the slowing consumer,” said David Abella, a portfolio manager with Rochdale Investment Management LLC in New York who holds shares of Aeropostale and Nordstrom. “If retail sales pick up broadly, they should - - - - >

Some retailers kept inventory so low theyve had to bring in new merchandise to restock shelves, a rare move this soon after Christmas.
Thats good news for their bottom lines. But it means slim pickings for shoppers hoping for after-Christmas clearance sales. Shoppers looking for big sales should act quickly because there are relatively few leftovers to clear out.
“Retailers are much more nimble this year,” NPD analyst Marshal Cohen said. “Their Plan B is to have new receipts at the ready.”
Cohen said he noticed J. Crew and Coach were two that had restocked shelves with new items last week.
Because their ordering - - - - >

The spending bounce means retailers managed to avoid a repeat of last years disaster even amid tight credit and double-digit unemployment. Profits should be healthier, too, because stores had a year to plan their inventories to match consumer demand and never needed to resort to fire-sale clearances.
Retail sales rose 3.6 percent from Nov. 1 through Dec. 24, compared with a 2.3 percent drop in the year-ago period, according to figures from MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse, which track all forms of payment, including cash.
Adjusting for an extra shopping day between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the number was closer to a 1 percent gain.
Last - - - - >

Shoppers in Britain spent 132 million pounds ($210 million) online on Dec. 25 alone, a 29 percent increase from a year earlier, according to estimates by payment-processing company Retail Decisions. The number of U.K. customers on Boxing Day, the day after Christmas, increased by 19 percent, Experian Plc said in an e-mailed statement.
Retailers avoided last years pre-Christmas discounting by cutting inventory to “much healthier” levels, according to Morgan Stanley analysts. Prices, which were slashed by as much as 75 percent in 2008, were down by about - - - - >

Chancellor of the Exchequer Alastair Darling will restore the value-added tax, a levy on sales, to 17.5 percent effective Jan. 1, after reducing the rate to 15 percent a year ago to help pull the economy out of the recession.
Kingfisher, Europes largest home-improvement chain, is offering 50 percent discounts today on bathrooms and kitchen doors at its B&Q chain while DSG International Plc, owner of the Currys electronics stores and PC World, advertised Beat the VAT increase! on posters and reduced a Sharp Corp. 32-inch flat- - - - - >

But those numbers may be smaller as the industry braces for what some analysts believe will be a second consecutive holiday season of declines in gift card sales.
The final word on holiday gift card sales is not out. Mall of America is seeing gift cards flat through this week compared with a year ago. Mall operator Taubman Centers cited lukewarm sales heading into the final week before Christmas, but saw a rebound in recent days as threadbare shelves have left last-minute shoppers no other choice.
Overall, the recession has stolen gift cardss steam. Reduced consumer spending has extended to gift cards, - - - - >

Starting online yesterday, Best Buy Co. trimmed the price of a Dell Studio 17-inch notebook computer to $699.99 from $779.99. Toys “R” Us Inc. shoppers who buy a Nintendo Wii video game can buy a second game for half price.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which started cutting holiday toy prices Sept. 30, is trying to keep consumers coming back by offering a $50 gift card on purchases of Microsoft Corp.s Xbox 360 players through Jan. 1. Promotions intensified after last weekends East Coast snowstorm hurt sales going into - - - - >

Best Buy Co. trimmed the price of a Lenovo netbook computer by a third to $197 online today and in stores tomorrow. Toys “R” Us Inc. shoppers who buy video games including Sony Corp.s PlayStation 3 can buy a second game for half price.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which started cutting holiday toy prices Sept. 30, is trying to keep consumers coming back by offering a $50 gift card on purchases of Microsoft Corp.s Xbox 360 players through Jan. 1. Promotions intensified after last weekends East Coast snowstorm - - - - >