Weekly sales rise 1.9%

New York City A report released Tuesday by the International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs said that chain-store sales for the week ended Jan. 23 rose 1.9% from the year-earlier period.

On a week-over-week basis, sales fell 2.5%.

"January is a difficult month to read given its traditional low volume sales and, as a consequence, small shifts due to weather or inventory or other factors can be greatly amplified in weekly sales pace," said Michael Niemira, ICSC's chief economist. He forecast January sales to rise about 1%.