by Calculated Risk on 5/10/2007 10:04:00 AM

From MarketWatch: Easter egged April sales; most results miss

April was largely a sales disaster for most of the nation's largest retail chain stores.
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With more than three-quarters of retailers reporting to Thomson Financial, 86% of them missed expectations for same-store sales, the industry's benchmark for growth measured by receipts rung up at stores open longer than a year.
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"April's negative (results) are not necessarily an indication that consumers are not spending or that the economy is going down," [Thomson Financial's Jharonne Martis] said. "They are simply the result of the shift in the Easter calendar."
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Wal-Mart's results were far worse than expected, coming in lower by 3.5% compared with the minus 1.1% expected at Thomson Financial.

This is being blamed on poor weather and the calendar (Easter).