China falls for Christmas -- at least in its stores
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China's shopping malls in late December leave little doubt that the country has been smitten by Christmas, if not in quite the way devout Christians might hope.
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Retailers posted mostly gloomy December sales results, as snow storms, discounts and economic uncertainty conspired to make the 2007 holiday shopping season the worst in 5 years.
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Across the country, initiatives are sprouting to push commerce out of Christmas and focus on tradition.
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Retail spending, hurt by a falloff in auto sales, dipped slightly in January, but demand stayed strong in other areas as people rushed to malls with their Christmas gift cards.
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Shoppers expecting big, across-the-board price cuts in the run-up to Christmas may be in for an unpleasant surprise.
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One less festive sign of the holiday season is the magnification of losses in some of the worst-performing stocks.
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Christmas sales in Britain appear set this year for another bonanza, but fewer retailers are likely to share in it amid signs consumer spending is wavering, a study said.
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Europe's retailers showed tentative signs on Wednesday of having overcome bleak expectations for consumer spending in the run-up to Christmas, even as high street retail stocks in the US tumbled on the back of disappointing performance.
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China's multibillion-dollar trade surplus narrowed in December for a second straight month, suggesting measures meant to slow its rapid growth might be taking effect, according to government data released Friday.
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The first Christmas shopping weekend of the year may have started with a bang, but it ended with a whimper, evidence from two groups that track sales showed on Tuesday.
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US stores post mixed results for the holiday season, with luxury retailers faring well and others forced to slash prices.
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Retailers may be in for a blue  Christmas this year as worries about soaring energy prices,  consumers' cost-consciousness and a warmer December than last  year make for lackluster holiday sales, retail analysts said.
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The Christmas shopping season began with the now-traditional pre-dawn sales at Wal-Mart, Target and Staples, among others. Judging by the weight of holiday catalogues, the absence of early discounting and
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Retailers generally had a good showing as the Christmas shopping season began last weekend, but Wal-Mart Stores Inc. dampened the holiday mood with a lump of coal as it reduced its projected sales.
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BEIJING (Reuters Life!) - On a wintery lunchbreak before Lunar New Year, Beijingers in puffy jackets lean over glass cases of gleaming rat figurines and Olympics trinkets at the city's largest gold store.
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Business & money: Bargain-chasing shoppers force stores into heavy price discounting after slowest Christmas sales growth in three years
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Sold-out Christmas tree lots and  packed parking garages at malls during peak hours at first  glance may suggest a merrier Christmas for retailers, but they  are actually signs the holiday season may be a mixed one for  U.S. retailers, analysts said.