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To: Rob S. who wrote (12724)	8/6/1998 8:48:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 164684

Economy again boosts U.S. July retail sales Reuters Story - August 06, 1998 20:23 %USC %US %WHO %RET %NEWS S WMT COST KM JCP TLB V%REUTER P%RTR By Gregory Crawford CHICAGO, Aug 6 (Reuters) - As the U.S. economy chugged along in July, consumers went shopping, helping most retailers report strong monthly sales numbers on Thursday. Consumers continued to be heavy buyers of everything from clothing to furniture and household durables like washing machines, analysts said. "It seems that consumer fundamentals continue to be the driver here -- strong consumer fundamentals, strong consumer spending,"said economist Michael Niemira at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi Ltd. "The stories are basically a continuation of the first-half stories, which include strong furniture sales, household durables and good apparel demand," he said. Sears, Roebuck and Co., the No. 2 U.S. retailer, saw double-digit increases in sales of washing machines, clothes dryers and vacuum cleaners, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Arthur Martinez said in a statement. For the month, same store sales at Sears rose 1.7 percent and total sales rose 3.5 percent. Lehman Brothers retail industry analyst Jeffrey Feiner said in a report that sales in July were helped by a solid macroeconomic environment and strong seasonal selling. He said sales were particularly strong among value retailers like Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Costco Cos. Inc. and Kmart Corp., a continuation of a trend seen over the last year. At Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, same store sales rose 7.1 percent in July and total sales rose 16.3 percent. Warehouse retailer Costco posted an 8 percent increase in July same store sales, while Kmart, the No. 3 U.S. retailer, said same store sales in July rose 5.9 percent. Patrick McCormack, retail industry analyst at BT Alex. Brown, said his index of 100 retail companies posted a 5.4 percent increase in comparable store sales for July, better than the expected 5 percent increase and the 4.5 percent gain expected by the companies. "It's a good performance," he said. "Inventories are well controlled." Niemira said stores that reported weak sales in July, such as department store operator J.C. Penney Co. Inc. and women's clothing retailer Talbots Inc., were hurt by a shortfall in supply, not demand. Same store sales fell 5.7 percent at J.C. Penney and 7.9 percent at Talbots. But illustrating the fact that sales were strong, Talbots said it expected to report a profit of between 2 cents and 4 cents a share in the second quarter, above current analyst forecasts of a loss of 8 cents.