The US holiday season has begun with a big demand for electronics goods

US shoppers are reported to have spent big on flat-panel TV sets and computers over the long Thanksgiving weekend but despite aggressive discounting throughout November and on Black Friday (the name for the shopping day after Thanksgiving), America's top retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. reported its weakest monthly sales in more than 10 years, raising concerns about whether the Christmas cheer will be widely shared.

Retail sales tracker ShopperTrak RCT said that Friday sales nationwide increased 6% from the previous year, reaching $8.96 billion.

The largest gains Friday were in electronics. In dollar terms, the average purchase was nearly 9% higher than a year ago according to Visa USA, which tracks purchases made with its credit cards -- roughly $17 out of every $100 spent in the US.

Goods dominated by department stores and discounters, such as apparel, didn't sell as rapidly, Visa said.

The National Retail Federation, which forecasts that holiday sales will increase 5% this year to $457.4 billion, said more than 140 million people went shopping on Friday. In a survey of 3,090 consumers, the trade association found that shoppers spent an average of $360.15 this weekend, up nearly 19% from last year's $302.81.

Web retailers also saw a big rise in holiday sales, even as the e-commerce industry matures into a period of slower growth. Web retail sales, not including travel, rose 42% on Friday to $434 million from $305 million a year earlier, according to comScore Networks Inc., a Web-tracking firm.

Today is known as "Cyber Monday" - the first back-to-work day after Thanksgiving, which often sees a rise in people shopping online from the office. ComScore expects sales to jump 24% to $599 million today from $484 million last year.

Wal-Mart reported Saturday that sales at stores open at least a year, fell 0.1% for the four weeks ended Friday. It was its worst such performance since April 1996, and only the second time in 27 years that Wal-Mart has registered such a decline.

Car sales to fall in 2007

IRN, a Michigan based- market researcher, is reported to be forecasting US 2007 sales of 16.3 million light vehicles, or cars and trucks. That would be the lowest level since 1998 and a fall of 300,000 from this year's expected sales of 16.6 million vehicles. However, both General Motors and Toyota are forecasting sales of 16.5 million cars and trucks in 2007.

Analysts at Bank of America, Wachovia Corp. and Citigroup are expecting a sharper decline and in the third quarter 2006, car sales in America's biggest state California plunged 16%. The California Motor Car Dealers Association is forecasting a 2.5% fall in new-car registrations in 2007.

The impact of a housing market correction is also expected to have a negative impact on sales in large states such as Florida.