Business news for Mon, 24 Dec 2007 & with words forecast+sales. 4 news.

Target warned that December sales at stores open at least one year were running well below its previous forecast and may actually decline, jeopardizing earnings growth at the No. 2 U.S. retailer.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Target Corp. warned on Monday that December sales at stores open at least one year were running well below its previous forecast and may actually decline, jeopardizing earnings growth at the No. 2 U.S. retailer.

UNITED States Internet sales rose at the slowest pace on record as discounts cut revenue in the final days of the holiday shopping season. Online spending from November 1 through December 21 increased 19 percent from the same period a year earlier to $26.3 billion, Reston, Virginia-based ComScore Inc said yesterday. Sales trailed last year's 26 percent growth and the research firm's forecast for a 20 percent gain during this year's holidays, Bloomberg News said. Consumers have limited spending growth this year as gasoline and food prices rise and mortgage defaults increase. The Reuters/University of Michigan final index of consumer sentiment for December dropped to 75.5, the lowest since October 2005. "This year will be the year of the discount," Fred Crawford, managing director at AlixPartners LLP, told Bloomberg Television on December 21. AlixPartners is a consulting firm based in Southfield, Michigan. ComScore hasn't recorded growth of less than 20 percent since

Big 3 in better shape to weather slump The auto industry is buckling up for what could be the roughest road it has traveled in a decade, though forecasters see economic conditions, and thus vehicle sales, becoming smoother by the end of the 2008.