Williams-Sonoma Posts 3Q Loss

San Francisco Williams-Sonoma Inc. Thursday reported a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss on Thursday and said it amended a $300 million credit line providing for more relaxed covenants, sending its shares up 10%.

The company also said that it had terminated a $150 million stock-buyback program to conserve cash, and stood by a previous forecast calling for lower profit for the current holiday quarter.

Williams-Sonoma posted a third-quarter loss, ended Nov. 2, of $11 million, compared with a profit of $27.1 million a year earlier.

Retail revenue slipped to $424.4 million from $494.3 million on weaker results across all its brands.

Direct-to-customer revenue, which contains catalog and Internet sales, declined to $327.7 million from $400.9 million.

Third-quarter same-store sales sagged 21.4%.