Gift Cards and Balmy Weather Stoke January Retail Sales
On February 14, the U.S. Commerce Department delivered a valentine to the nation's economy. At 8:30 a.m., the agency released a monthly sales estimate for January showing that retail and food services sales were up 2.3 percent from December 2005 and had risen 8.8 percent over January 2005. Estimated January sales were $365.4 billion, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes.