Rumour in the city of an MBO - fill yer boots up - GO man GO!!

Happy New Year All,

WASHINGTON (AFX) - Sales at US chain stores rose 2.1 pct on a seasonally
adjusted annual rate in the week ended Dec 28 compared with the previous week,
the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and UBS Warburg reported in their Weekly Chain
Store Sales Snapshot.
Sales rose 0.1 pct in the previous week.
Year-on-year, sales rose 2.9 pct in the week, up from 1.7 pct in the
previous week.
"A good finish to a mediocre season," BTM-UBSW said.
"After the late December surge in sales, the 2002 holiday season-to-date
performance is now running slightly above its 2001 performance," the firms said.
BTM-UBSW said it still expects December sales will be up by around 2.0 pct
on a year-on-year basis, which now means a season performance of around 1.5 pct.
greg.robb@afxnews.com
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