P.M. BRIEFING : Top Retailers Show Strong Sales

A surge of consumer spending in late September helped many of the nation’s biggest retailers chalk up satisfactory sales gains, they said today, but other store owners said they continued to struggle last month.

“The numbers look pretty good,” said Linda Kristiansen, a retail industry analyst with Dean Witter Reynolds Inc. “Apparel sales picked up toward the end of the month when the weather cooled off.”

Jeffrey Edelman, an analyst with Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc., reported a burst of spending in the final seven to 10 days of the month, with apparel retailers the biggest beneficiaries.

But Jeffrey Feiner, an analyst with Merrill Lynch & Co., said sales of such durable goods as home appliances continue to slump as consumers, still juggling high installment debt payments, were reluctant to purchase more expensive items.