As has been revealed by a report released by Statistics Canada on Friday, customers looking to make the most of the home-improvement tax credit ended up driving retail sales for the month of January by a larger-than-expected 0.7%.

Analysts had, on an average, expected a rise on 0.6%.

Due to an improved retail environment, outdoor clothing and equipment retailer Kathmandu Holdings managed to escalate 27.5% in half year revenues to $106.6 million. The result also exhibits new stores and a strong Christmas promotion.

Supermarket giant Woolworths Ltd.'s Everyday Mobile was unveiled in August 2009, offering $2 SIM cards, unlocked mobile phone handsets along with pre-paid plans for sale in its supermarkets, Big W stores and other outlets.

Retail sales in U. S registered a unexpected climb in February despite falling car demand amidst trouble at auto maker Toyota MotorCorp and snowstorms that handicapped the East Coast for days.

The positive performance also extended hopes that the recovery from the Great Recession is grabbing pace.

The dollar registered a gain against rivals Friday morning after stronger U. S. economic data triggered bets that the Federal Reserve will toughen monetary policy sooner than anticipated.

The greenback led to intraday high against the yen, trading close to the Y91 level, and pared overnight losses against the euro after U. S. retail sales in February unexpectedly climbed.

Billabong International, the world's biggest publicly traded surfwear maker, landed in the court by its former Indonesian licensee, CV Bali Balance (CVBB), on account of the cancellation of its distribution license in Indonesia.

Compared with the amount of losses suffered by the cloth retailing giant Postie Plus in the previous year, the losses reported in the first half of this year, ending this January, have come out to be relatively lower.

Posties is a chain of 79 Postie and clothing stores, spread nationwide.

After the new sales-tax regulations on online vendors, Amazon. com Inc. decided to drop its advertising retailers in Colorado.

Matalan, founder, John Hargreaves has planned to compensate himself with a hefty amount of £250m dividend out of the total amount of £525m decided as the refinance amount to be funded by the banks and investors. John is in continuous talks with the banks and financiers to fund the 200 store chain to settle Matalan's debt of approximately £260m.

The chain of supermarkets, Stop & Shop will be entering into an agreement with labor unions in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Stop & Shop executives will attend an official meeting with the unions on Sunday.