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RAPAPORT... U.S. chain-store rose 1.7 percent year on year for the fiscal month of February, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC). The figure was below ICSC's guidance of 2 percent to 2.5 percent. ICSC concluded that retail sales were negatively impacted by adverse weather conditions in some areas of the country, higher payroll taxes and the uncertainty surrounding the federal government’s automatic spending cuts. “The retailer tone in their own sales reporting seemed softer than the aggregate performance in February,” said Michael P. Niemira, ICSC's vice president of research. “Clearly, weather and budget politics played a negative factor in February, but the improving housing market is helping to offset some of those drags.” ICSC's guidance for the month of March reveals a comparable-store sales increase of 3 percent to 4 percent, primarily due to an early Easter, which falls on March 31.
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