Year-To-Date Retail Sales Best Since 2006

New York, NY, July 8, 2010--U.S. retail sales continued to grow in June, the International Council of Shopping Centers trade group said.

Chain stores posted a 3.0% gain in June--within the expected 3-4%, but at its low end.

The best performing segments were luxury (+8.8%) and department stores overall (+5.9%).

ICSC said it expects that the pace of sales for July will continue within the 3-4% range.  On a fiscal year-to-date basis, total sales grew by 3.8%--still the best performance since 2006.

Retailers may have bucked last month’s drop in consumer confidence. The year-to- date growth in sales shows that spending, a key driver of the U.S. economy, is faring better than many investors are betting, said Michael Niemira, the ICSC’s chief economist.

Chain store sales index for the week ending July 3 rose by a solid 1.0% on a week-over-week basis.

Sales at Nordstrom, the U.S. department-store chain with more than 100 locations, jumped 14.1% at stores open at least a year, more than the 9.1% average of analysts’ estimates compiled by Retail Metrics Inc.

Sales at J.C. Penney, the third-largest U.S. department store, climbed 4.5%, compared with a 3.7% projection. Macy’s Inc., the No. 2 department store, rose 6.5%, also topping estimates.