April Sales Strong Thanks to a Late Holiday

Retailers reaped the benefits of a late Easter holiday this year in the April results, suffering less from soaring gas prices than some predicted.

But, while the majority of retail outfits surpassed the sales estimates put forth by Thomas Reuters, upscale and mid-tier department stores fell short. Nordstrom and Saks showed increases of 7.6 percent and 5.8 percent, respectively, just shy of the 8.1 percent and 10.3 percent Reuters foreshadowed. Likewise, Kohl’s jumped to 10.2, though was expected to hit 15.1 percent.

Sneaking by proposed expectations, Macy’s marked a 10.8 percent increase in April, while Dillards went up 11 percent.

One department store to fall short of the prediction was J.C. Penney, which came in at a 6.4 percent gain. The company did, however, raise its first-quarter earnings guidance.