Best Buy results could give clues on holiday sales
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Investors will get a first look at whether early strong holiday sales for electronics are translating into higher profits when Best Buy Co. Inc.  reports its quarterly results next week.
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E-tailers have laggards and penny-pinchers to thank for last week&#39;s brisk sales, which grew 25 percent over the comparable period last year, according to comScore.Procrastinators and deal-seekers helped create a &quot;flurry&quot; of online spending last week in the U.S., keeping retail e-sales strong, comScore said Sunday.Between Nov. 1 and Dec. 21 -- the first 51 days of the holiday season -- U.S. shoppers have spent $26.3 billion online, up 19 percent compared with the corresponding period last year.So far, the heaviest online shopping day this season was Dec. 10, the so-called &quot;Green Monday,&quot; a term coined by eBay for the second Monday in December, which the vendor has identified as particularly heavy e-sales day. U.S. shoppers spent $881 million that day, up 33 percent from the corresponding day in 2006.By contrast, Cyber Monday, the first workday after the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S., ranks as this holiday season&#39;s ninth heaviest online shopping day, with $733 million in sales. Cyber Monday is considered the day when holiday online shopping kicks into high gear.Overall, comScore expects this year&#39;s holiday season to generate about $29.5 billion in online spending, which would represent a 20 percent increase from the same period in 2006.
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Best Buy Co. Inc. BBY.N, the  nation's top electronics retail chain, posted a 21 percent rise  in quarterly profit on Wednesday, slightly above expectations,  and said the holiday shopping season was even more competitive  than last year.
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Top U.S. electronics chain Best Buy  Co. Inc. BBY.N on Wednesday posted an 8 percent rise in  second-quarter net earnings on strong sales of higher-priced  digital products and curbs on expenses.
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Best Buy said its comparable-store sales rose 1.5 percent in December on strong sales of video games and notebook computers.
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Many U.S. retailers are expected to  report disappointing December sales later this week, hurt by  everything from the challenging economy to unfavorable weather  to the calendar, which shifted more holiday sales to November.
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Best Buy Co Inc.  may have  ridden the flat-panel TV wave to higher profits, but the  retailer's disappointing quarterly results have sparked worries  that the wave may have crested sooner than expected.
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The last minute will be a crucial one for U.S. retailers looking to make holiday sales as data released on Tuesday, one week before Christmas, show that consumers continue to procrastinate and that last week's wicked weather stymied holiday shopping.
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The nation's retailers had a strong start to the holiday shopping season, according to results announced Saturday by a national research group that tracks sales at mall-based stores. One big exception was Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which said it expects to report same-store sales in November below its already lackluster forecast.
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Best Buy Co. Inc.  reported quarterly earnings on Tuesday that missed analyst estimates by a wide margin and gave a disappointing full-year forecast as television sales cooled.
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Internet retailer announces its best holiday season; electronics were the key.
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With the holiday shopping season in full swing, the battle between Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft over which company will win the end-of-year sales crown is heating up.
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Jewelers like Tiffany & Co , Zale Corp  and Finlay Enterprises  are set to release holiday sales data later this week -- and analysts are expecting less-than-sparkling results.
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Plenty of shoppers this holiday season will be passing up retailers' shiny window displays of high-end PCs to seek out bottom-shelf offerings, and with good reason.
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The holiday shopping season is ending on a better note than it began, and most retailers are on track to meet humble sales goals. Still, retailers hope for a boost the week after Christmas as consumers cash in gift cards.
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With the 2007 run-up to Christmas boosted by a last-minute sales surge, retailers are putting an extra emphasis on after-Christmas discounts, hoping bargain shoppers and gift-card splurgers can enrich stores' holidays.
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The holiday shopping season ended better than it started, and most retailers are on track to meet humble sales goals. Still, many hope for an extra boost this week as consumers cash in gift cards.