Retail Sales

It still won't look a lot like Christmas for retailers this year. Retail sales during the crucial November-December period are projected to fall 1%, to $437.6 billion, from the same period in 2008, the National Retail Federation said in its holiday forecast to be released today. That's bad, but not quite so dismal as the 3.4% drop last year, the trade group said. "The expectation of another challenging holiday season does not come as news to retailers," said Tracy Mullin, the group's president.

NEW YORK -- Surprisingly strong earnings reports from Intel Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are sending stocks sharply higher. In early trading today, the Dow Jones industrials were about 40 points away from the 10,000 mark, a level not seen in a year. Major stock indexes all rose about 1 percent. JPMorgan Chase, the first major bank to report third-quarter earnings, stoked the market's optimism as it handily beat Wall Street's expectations, reporting a profit of $3.59 billion for the July-September period.

For most retail stores, staying in business for only a few days would be considered a major flop. But a growing number of merchants are opening shops and abruptly shutting them down soon after -- on purpose. These quickie retail operations -- known as pop-ups -- are showing up throughout Southern California and around the nation, filling in the gaps at recession-battered shopping centers for a fraction of the regular rents. Once limited to seasonal shops and dusty liquidation centers, pop-up stores are now being opened by some of the nation's biggest retailers.

This holiday season, don't be surprised if your gifts come from discount stores -- or if some of your friends don't buy you anything at all. Lingering economic worries will cause holiday shoppers to trim budgets and look for more deals this year, according to a National Retail Federation survey to be released today. The survey found that U.S. consumers plan to spend an average of $682.74 on holiday shopping, a 3.2% drop from $705.01 last year. The findings are in line with recent projections by numerous analysts and retail groups that call for a flat to negative Christmas season as consumers continue to worry about their jobs and finances.

It wasn't the equivalent of selling out Shea Stadium, but the Beatles had a decent debut in the video game world. The Beatles: Rock Band, Viacom Inc.'s heavily hyped and costly video game based on the music of the biggest-selling rock band of all time, sold 595,000 units in its first 25 days for sale in the U.S. last month, according to NPD Group. That's bigger than the first-month sales of either 2007's Rock Band or 2008's Rock Band 2, but far below the best launches in the music-video-game genre and some analysts' estimates.

Silvia Spross took a baby step into small-business ownership when she opened a jewelry kiosk on Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade. It took just $11,000 to set up Lapzos Beads, including $3,500 for the first month's rent. So far the Swiss immigrant has hit her goal to average at least $200 a day in sales of the necklaces, rings and bracelets she makes from rough-cut semiprecious stones, polished rocks and beads from around the world. "I would love to own a little store but figured this would be a great start, just to see if it works," said Spross, whose lease runs just through January.

For those who like renting movies, Hollywood may soon have a message: Prepare to wait. In an effort to push consumers toward buying more movies, some major film studios are considering a new policy that would block DVDs from being offered for rental until several weeks after going on sale. Under the plan, new DVD releases would be available on a purchase-only basis for a few weeks, after which time companies such as Blockbuster Inc. and Netflix Inc. would be allowed to rent the DVDs to their customers.

U2's concert at the Rose Bowl shattered attendance records at the venue as more than 100,000 people, including Rose Bowl staff, took in the band's Southern California stop on its 360 Tour, according to the venue's general manager, Darryl Dunn. Yet the number of fans who watched the concert online probably dwarfs that tally. Final figures aren't in yet from Google-owned YouTube, which streamed the concert live, but the page housing the concert has received close to 7 million "channel views."

The nation's retailers had their best month in more than a year in October as shoppers turned to discounters and high-end stores alike. The news helped fuel a rally on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones industrial average surged 203.82 points, or 2.1%, to 10,005.96. Year-over-year retail sales rose 1.8%, the best showing since June 2008 and the second straight month of gains, according to Thomson Reuters' tally of 30 major chain stores. In a promising note, upscale chains Nordstrom Inc. and Saks Inc. beat expectations, showing that affluent shoppers may be loosening their purse strings on high-end items.

Apple Inc.'s iPhone has been a ringing success wherever it has been launched. But in China few are picking up the buzz. Challenged by high pricing, missing features and stiff competition, iPhones have logged only 5,000 sales since the handset debuted Oct. 30 in the world's biggest cellphone market. By comparison, more than a million units were sold in the first three days when the latest iPhone was launched in North America and Europe in June. One major hang-up might be the price.