WRAPUP 3-US retailers boosted by Wal-Mart in Feb, outlook weak
Thu Mar 5, 2009 12:35pm EST Email | Print | Share| Reprints | Single Page[-] Text [+]
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More Business & Investing News... * Feb same-store sales up 0.3 pct vs view of 1.2 pct fall
* Wal-Mart same-store sales up 5.1 pct, topping view
* Apparel sales drop, but beat expectations
* Wal-Mart shares up 4 pct, S&P Retail Index down 4.1 pct (Recasts with ICSC and Thomson Reuters data, analyst comments)
By Aarthi Sivaraman
NEW YORK, March 5 (Reuters) - U.S. retailers posted better-than-expected February same-store sales on Thursday due to a strong gain at discounter Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N), which said lower gasoline prices had loosened some household budgets.
While several apparel and department store and luxury chains posted same-store sales declines, a handful, including TJX Cos (TJX.N), Kohl's Corp (KSS.N) and Ross Stores (ROST.O), fared better than weak forecasts, as they appealed to shoppers with new fashions and attractive prices.
Analysts cautioned that February did not mark a turnaround in the retailers' performance. U.S. store chains will need to show consistent improvement in the coming months for expectations to change, they said.
"We would want to see several more months along this line to come out and say we've made a turn here," said Ken Perkins, president of Retail Metrics.
Shares of Wal-Mart, which also raised its annual dividend by 15 percent on Thursday, rose 2.7 percent [ID:nN05461432]. The wider Standard & Poor's Retail Index .RLX fell 3.6 percent following a warning by General Motors (GM.N) about potential bankruptcy that spooked the market as a whole.
Retailers posted a surprise 0.3 percent increase in overall February same-store sales, against Wall Street expectations for a 1.2 percent drop, according to Thomson Reuters.
The increase was mostly due to Wal-Mart, which posted a greater-than-expected 5.1 rise in same-store sales. Excluding Wal-Mart, same-store sales fell 4.7 percent compared with expectations for a 4.8 percent drop.
A GAS BENEFIT
U.S. consumers have suffered in the past year from job losses, tighter credit and a weak housing market -- factors that have forced them to conserve money by shopping at discount stores and sticking to basic purchases like food.
"We believe falling gas prices significantly boosted household disposable income in February and therefore allowed for both more trips and more spending towards discretionary categories," Wal-Mart Vice Chairman Eduardo Castro-Wright said.
Pointing to more sales pressure ahead, the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) forecast U.S. same-store sales to be flat to down 1 percent in March and said it expects April to be a little weaker than March. Continued...