US retail sales rose for the second consecutive month in June, by 0.6 percent, Commerce Department data showed in a report stronger than expected.

Mexican retailers group ANTAD said its members' same-store sales fell in June, breaking a brief recovery in the previous two months, partially hurt by one weekend day less compared with the same period of 2008.

British outdoor goods retailer Blacks Leisure Group Plc posted a further fall in sales in its latest trading period but said it was confident of securing new funds from its lender.

Annual shop price inflation eased to 0.7 percent in June from 1.3 percent in May - its weakest since December, as food price inflation hit a 14-month low, British Retail Consortium data showed.

Chain-store sales in the USA increased slightly in the week ending the 4th of July, rising 0.1% in shop compared to the week before, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers on the 7th of July.

British home shopping firm N Brown Group Plc posted a slight slowdown in its rate of sales growth and said its gross profit margins had continued to fall due to an increase in bad debts.

German retailer Metro plans to sell a five-year benchmark euro bond, an official at one of the banks managing the sale said.

The mail order unit of insolvent German retailer Arcandor, Quelle, is already attracting interest from potential buyers, the administrator in charge of Quelle told German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

German retailer Metro plans to revamp its management board to give Chief Financial Officer Thomas Unger additional responsibilities.

Euro zone retail sales fell further than expected in May, dampening hopes that an improvement in consumer spending might ease the recession.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world's largest retailer, said that it supports President Barack Obama's push to require large employers to offer health insurance to workers.

Mexican retailer Comercial Mexicana said it received a proposal from creditors on how to restructure the company, which defaulted on its debt last year after getting slammed by the global credit crisis.

Australian department store retailer David Jones Ltd raised its full-year profit forecast due to a strong trading performance in May and June.

Your-Mart Co, the largest retailer in China's province of Hunan, said it would raise about 500 million yuan ($75 million) in a stock initial public offering next month, the third firm to be given approval to go public after regulators resumed IPOs.

U.S. consumer spending rose last month for the first time since February as government stimulus pushed incomes sharply higher, the Commerce Department said on Friday 26 June, supporting the view the economy was close to pulling out of recession.