We believe that many retailers sought to capture sales early with more compelling discounts before the shock of higher home-heating bills began to weigh on consumers.

Online sales still represent about 2 percent of total retails sales. So there's a lot more room to grow.

Online sales still represent about 2 percent of total retails sales. So there's a lot more room to grow,

Online sales are growing at a healthy clip, even though sales may have pulled back somewhat from the robust pace seen earlier this year.

Wal-Mart was rightly cautious with its outlook. Their first-quarter sales barely met the lower end of their 2 to 4 percent guidance.

Despite the slippage in home sales there is no evidence of any nationwide softening of home prices, though it may be difficult to avoid some slippage in the price of residential real estate if only because a slower pace of home sales is likely for 2006,