·
Chain
store sales during the pivotal Thanksgiving week slid 1.5% from the
prior week, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers
(ICSC)-UBS.
· The decline left sales so far in November just 0.4% ahead of October.
· The leading indicator of chain store sales from ICSC was unchanged after two weeks of 0.5% decline. The monthly average is up 0.1% from October which rose 0.4% from September.
· During the last ten years there has been a 60% correlation between y/y change in chain store sales and the change in non-auto retail sales less gasoline.
· The ICSC-UBS retail chain-store sales index is constructed using the same-store sales reported by 78 stores of seven retailers: Dayton Hudson, Federated, Kmart, May, J.C. Penney, Sears and Wal-Mart.