NEW YORK – Sales at U.S. retail stores open at least one year declined a seasonally adjusted 0.7 percent over the past week, after falling 0.1 percent the week before, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers and UBS Securities LLC report for the seven days ended June 23, Bloomberg News said.
The report blamed cooler weather that pared demand for air conditioners and summer clothes.
Compared with the same week of 2006, same-store retail sales rose 1.7 percent last week, after rising 1.9 percent the previous week.
It was the smallest year-over-year gain in seven weeks. Weekly sales haven’t exceeded 3 percent of those a year earlier since early April, Bloomberg said, citing lower temperatures and high gasoline prices.
“The cooler-than-normal week may have cut into demand for summer goods,” wrote UBS analysts Michelle Tan. Reports so far indicate “a somewhat softer start to June” than the ICSC and UBS had predicted, Tan said. “However, it is tough to judge whether this signals an overspent consumer.”
For all of June, the increase in same-store sales may be “slightly shy” of the 2 percent the ICSC and UBS previously predicted, the report said.
Target Corp. yesterday pared its own forecast for the five weeks ended July 5. It previously predicted a 3-percent to 5-percent increase, but now expects results at the low end of that range.
The International Council of Shopping Centers, a New York-based trade group, and investment bank UBS track same-store sales at about 60 chains that represent about 10 percent of U.S. retail sales. Additional information is available at www.icsc.org.
