·
Chain store sales recovered 1.2% during
the first full week of December following two weeks of sharp decline,
according to the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)-UBS.
· Despite the rise, sales so far in December are 1.9% below November.
· The leading indicator of chain store sales from ICSC slipped another 0.2% in the latest week for the fourth decline in the last five.
· 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.