Ever since Next Plc (LON:NXT) kicked off the traditional retail sector Christmas trading snowball a fortnight ago with a profit warning and poor numbers, the City has been cautious.
But with an avalanche of updates since to trudge through – not least a blizzard of them today – the actual outcome has not sent as many shivers through the market as expected.
The clothing sector – aside from Next - looks to have weathered the storms on the high street, with Marks and Spencer Group Plc notably seeing its first quarterly rise in clothing and homeware sales for nearly two years.
Food retailers have also fought against the sector gloom, with the big three-listed players all showing Christmas sales growth - albeit only modestly for the two biggest players, J Sainsbury plc and Tesco PLC.
Here’s a summation of some of the key updates so far:
Supermarkets ...
William Morrison Supermarkets PLC (LON:MRW) kicked off the segment’s updates with it strongest underlying Christmas sales performance for seven years, leading it to raise its profit guidance.
The fourth-biggest sector player said sales at stores open over a year, excluding fuel, rose by 2.9% in the nine weeks to January 1, smashing analysts’ average forecast of 1.1%, and well above its third quarter growth of 1.6%.
Britain's second biggest supermarket, Sainsbury’s also saw its update beat forecasts, albeit only with like-for-like sales growth of 0.1%, excluding fuel, for the 15 weeks to January 7, but that was an improvement on a fall of 1.1% in its fiscal second quarter.
The boost for Sainsbury came from catalogue-based high street general retailer Argos, acquired with the purchase of Home Retail Group last year, which saw its like-for-like sales increase by 4.0% over the period.
The market leader Tesco, however, confounded industry data expectations and saw its Christmas trading slightly disappoint, although its quarterly performance was solid, as expected, with group like-for-like sales in the 13 weeks to November 26 up 1.5% year-on-year
But, for the six weeks to January 7, Tesco’s group like-for-like sales only increased by 0.3%, as 0.7% growth in the UK was countered by a 1.2% decline internationally.
The big UK supermarket groups have been locked in a price war as they battle to combat the advance of German-owned discount chains, Aldi AG and Lidl AG, which reported even stronger Christmas performances.
Lidl saw its British arm enjoy its most successful Christmas trading period ever, with sales up 10% on a year-on-year basis in December.
And Aldi said sales at its UK business rose over 15% in December compared to the same month in 2015.
Clothing ...
Next saw its shares slump after cut its profit guidance for the current financial year, and also warned on the outlook for next year, as it said its total full price sales were down 0.4% in the 54 days to Saturday 24 December, with Next Retail sales falling 3.5% in the period .
But M&S shares advanced as it posted an increase in its clothing & home like-for-like sales of 2.3% in the 13 weeks to December 31, smashing market expectations for a 0.2% rise, while its food sales also rose over the period, up 0.6% beating forecasts for a slight fall.
Discount clothing chain Primark – part of retail to food conglomerate Associated British Foods PLC (LON:ABF) - reported even stronger quarterly sales, up 11% on a constant currency basis over the four month period.
The UK performance at the low-cost clothing retailer was particularly strong, with like-for-like sales and market share both increasing, albeit against soft comparatives. That more than offset the declines seen in Germany and the Netherlands.
Online fashion retailer ASOS plc (LON:ASC) also impressed once again as it posted a 36% rise in sales in the four months ended December. The group’s international business did particularly well with a 52% increase in revenues, boosted by the weak pound.
Fellow online fashion retailer Boohoo.com PLC (LON:BOO) raised its sales guidance once again on the back of strong demand in the US and robust trading from ‘Black Friday’ promotions.
The firm said it now expects revenue growth to be between 43% and 45% for the 12 months to February 28, up from previous guidance of between 38% and 42%.
Fashion retail brand SuperGroup PLC (LON:SGP) reported strong growth in first half pretax profit following a surge in revenues, leading it to hike its dividend by a quarter.
Sportswear seller JD Sports Fashion PLC (LON:JD.) reported a sparkling Christmas trading performance as well, saying its full-year profits should be up to 15% ahead of current market expectations of £200mln, as a result.
Formal-wear retail and hire firm Moss Bros Group plc (LON:MOSB) revealed growth in like-for-like sales too, but also said it is bracing for a tougher 2017.
Other ...
Employee-owned retail giant John Lewis Partnership saw growth in sales across both its eponymous, market leading department stores nosiness and food retail outlet Waitrose, helping it achieve a record Christmas week.
However, the group also highlighted a challenging market outlook and said that its staff bonus in March was likely to be "significantly lower" than last year.
Britain’s second biggest department stores operator Debenhams PLC (LON:DEB) reported underlying sales growth of 3.5% for the 18 weeks to January 7, beating a consensus forecast for growth of 1.2% driven by sales of perfume and lingerie.
Chinese-owned rival House of Fraser said record trading in the final fortnight of December helped it to report a 2.7% jump in underlying sales over the six week period to the end of the year.
However, the firm added that its online business accounted for around 41% of total sales across the six day period, starkly illustrating the problems for high street-focused businesses.
Online orders helped baby and children products retailer Mothercare plc (LON:MTC) post a return to growth in UK third-quarter sales.
The firm, which has been trying to revive its UK business, said sales at UK stores open over a year rose 1% during the quarter and online sales now represent about 40% of its total UK sales.
But online whites goods retailer AO World PLC (LON:AO) warned its outcome for the current three months was hard to call.
AO saw third quarter to December sales rise by 12.3% year-on-year, driven by an 8.9% rise in UK sales and 28.4% growth in Europe, but broker Shore Capital reckoned that was a ‘fairly modest’ performance with a steep underlying slowdown.
And more traditional homewares retailer Dunelm Group PLC (LON:DNLM) reported flat like-for-like sales in its second quarter, and said the segment continues to show signs of decline. Dunelm’s total like-for-likes were only up 0.2% in the 13 weeks to December 31.