Also worth mentioning is the fact that the January sales pace charted higher than expected.
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It was not the stylish coat that Momma had bought a year ago, in the January sales at the mall.
Many of the worst problems will hit retailers, who in some countries will be in the thick of the January sales, the period when shops are busiest and the amount of money in circulation is largest (see article).
Retailers Costco and Limited Brands beat the estimates for January sales, despite a cold month that set a record for snow levels in the east coast.
Just how difficult this will be can be seen from the fact that when asked about the coming sales, both houses ignore the Old-Master sales that will be held in New York at the end of January and focus instead on the Impressionist and modern sales the following month.
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The struggling consumer electronics retailer this morning said sales for the 9 weeks ended January 5 were down 0.4%, with domestic sales down 1.2% and international sales up 2.2%.
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Macy's raised its profit forecast for the fiscal fourth quarter and reported upbeat sales, signaling its recent strength continued through the holidays even as January same-store sales fell short of views.
The output rebound was in line with a spike in January sales figures released earlier in the month.
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During the calm month of January, Spanish retail sales plunged by -10% and the December sales collapse was recently revised to -11%.
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The seasonally-adjusted percentage increase in new home sales registered in January was the biggest since 1993.
Further strength in internet trading has been reported by Asos, the online market leader, which said sales rose 54% during the January-to-March quarter when compared with the same period a year earlier.
January sales reflected the damage done by the federal investigation of potential fire risks, he says.
According to analyst estimates, sales for the January-to-February period will fall 3% from the same months in 2011.
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Toyota reported a 26 percent gain in January sales in the U.S. market more than double the industry average gain for the month.
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Sales rose 1.1% to a five-month high in February, according to the Commerce Department, while January sales were revised higher to a gain of 0.6%.
The MobileStore, an Indian retail chain which says it sells 15% of iPhones in the country, tripled its iPhones sales from December to January which it attributed to the payment plan.
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The childcare products retailer said total group sales in the 13 weeks to 12 January fell 7.4% from a year ago.
However, the market is recovering from historic lows, and the January figure is still about a third below the level of sales that was typical during the 1970s, 80s and 90s, before last decade's housing bubble.
And Cardiff-based Peacocks saw sales for the five weeks to 1 January jump 28%, with like-for-like sales ahead 9%.
The data reflect the strong transaction volume this year sales of new private homes in the January-May period jumped nearly 54% from the same period last year to 10, 880 units.
But the margins suck: operating income equal to 5.1% of sales during the fiscal year ended January 31, barely up from 5.0% the prior two years.
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Last month, the firm reported that clothing sales fell 2.5% in the January-to-March period against the same time last year, and were 0.5% lower over the year.
The same-store sales reported last week showed strong January numbers, and the longer-term chart shows a solid uptrend (line b) and the breakout in 2011 above the 2007-2008 highs (line a).
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That could trickle into support for the PGMs as platinum and palladium rose in January on the back of a pickup in auto sales.
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The government said in January total vehicle sales this year should rise to 20.8 million from 19.3 million last year.
Last week, the pound suffered its biggest weekly loss since early June 2012 after a weak retail sales report for January added to worries about the economy.
Interestingly, the UK retail sales showed a surprise 1.9% rise in January despite the gloomy mood of the British consumers.
But many analysts are blaming the expiration of the payroll tax cut at the end of January and for a delay in tax refunds for the alleged lackluster February sales.
In Asia, data showed industrial production and retail sales in China for the January and February period missed expectations.
The sales took place online between January 2008 and August 2009 and in some instances false services histories were provided.
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