American Eagle Outfitters sounded a rare upbeat note yesterday amid the drumbeat of downbeat retail reports, saying November's 24.3 percent jump in stores open at least a year was good enough to persuade the Marshall retailer to raise earnings projections.

"November was a terrific start to the holiday season," Chief Financial Officer Laura Weil said, before cautioning investors that it was still early and that 50 percent of the fourth-quarter's sales traditionally came in December.

November's results at the fast-growing chain contrasted sharply with most of the nation's retailers, who said yesterday that they had a disappointing start to the holiday season after a much hoped-for surge in Thanksgiving weekend business failed to materialize.

As merchants released their first solid results for the season, the bad news spilled across the sector, with Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Limited Brands, Lazarus-Macy's parent Federated Department Stores Inc., Gap Inc. and Bombay Co. also posting poor results.

Upscale retailer Nordstrom Inc. and Neiman Marcus Group Inc., which have consistently surpassed Wall Street's projections over the past year, did post strong gains, but they were still below estimates.

Exceptions other than American Eagle included J.C. Penney Co. Inc. and Sears, Roebuck and Co., which beat Wall Street forecasts. Their business got a boost from strong sales over the Thanksgiving weekend as customer flocked to bigger discounts and earlier store openings than a year ago.

Overall, the industry struggled as consumers, particularly low- and middle-income Americans, have been forced to cut spending on clothing and other non-necessities as gasoline prices and grocery bills rise. They're also nervous about jobs -- on Tuesday, the Conference Board reported that doubts about the economy helped push consumer confidence down in November for a fourth consecutive month.

The International Council of Shopping Centers-UBS sales preliminary tally of 70 retailers increased 1.7 percent for November, lower than the reduced forecast of 2.5 percent to 3 percent range. The tally is based on what the industry calls same-store sales, or sales at stores opened at least a year.

Michael P. Niemira, chief economist at the shopping center group, said he was cutting his forecast for the November-December period to a 2.5 percent to 3 percent gain, from the original 2 percent to 4 percent projection.

The Washington, D.C.-based National Retail Federation said it was sticking with its forecast for a 4.5 percent gain in total retail sales, which exclude restaurant and auto sales. That would be less than the 5.1 percent gain of a year earlier. It's pinning its hopes on last-minute shoppers.

"We think it is too soon to define the holiday season as a success or a disappointment," said Ellen Tolley, a spokeswoman at the NRF. "The holiday season is going to be decided at the last minute, the week before and the week after Christmas" when shoppers do much of their buying.

Still, some of the nation's retailers are not willing to wait. Wal-Mart -- which acknowledged on Monday its weekend sales suffered because it had not discounted as heavily as its competitors -- is rethinking its strategy for the rest of the holiday season and is planning new ads that play up its reputation for low prices.