RetailSails

The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) reported that chain store sales fell 0.5% from the prior week, the fifth consecutive decline and and 6th drop in the last 7 weeks, while increasing 2.9% over the prior-year period during the week ending May 26th. Michael Niemira, ICSC’s vice president of research and chief economist, said “Consumers have been more pessimistic on many fronts during the month of May as the financial worries in Europe clearly have spilled over and weakened consumer confidence in the U.S. as the U.S. financial markets have retreated as well on increased global worry.” However, the ICSC‐GS consumer tracking survey suggested that consumers shopped more over the past week and some of the improved business went to discounters. According to Weather Trends International (WTI), the national average temperature over the past week ending Saturday was 2.2°F warmer than last year and 3.6°F warmer than its long‐term average. Meanwhile, fuel prices had their eighth straight weekly pullback. The US Energy Information Administration said gas prices fell another 4.5 cents compared with the prior week to $3.669 on May 28th and, cumulatively, by 27.2 cents over the past 8 weeks. Compared with the same week of the prior year, the price of regular‐grade gasoline fell by 3.3% in the latest week, which was its 6th straight year-over-year drop. For all of May, ICSC Research forecasts a comparable‐store sales gain of about 2% (including drug stores, which will be reported later due to the calendar). Excluding drug stores, sales are expected to increase by around 3.5% to 4.0%.