Major retailers are scheduled to announce their actual December sales results next week.

Thus far, however, analysts said December sales had been disappointing.

The company said its December sales, monitored in stores that had been open at least a year, fell 1 percent.

Ford was the last of the large auto makers to report December sales.

And next week, major American retailers will report their December sales.

December sales were trimmed 2,000, to a pace of 683,000.

December sales were revised to a 1.5 percent decline from November.

A year ago, early December sales produced an annual sales rate of 7.4 million.

December sales are typically strong, so the decision to close then indicated that things were not expected to pick up.

December sales fell 2 percent at Sears, compared with the month a year earlier.