By Austen Hufford 

Chain-store sales fell in the latest week from the previous week as retailers tried to push holiday sales earlier in November with promotions during Thanksgiving Day week.

In all, chain-store sales fell 6.1% for the week ended Saturday from the previous week on a seasonally adjusted, comparable-store basis, according to data compiled by Goldman Sachs and Retail Economist LLC.

The earlier sales and promotions explains the dropoff, according to Michael Niemira, chief economist of Retail Economist.

Still, he noted that Christmas and Hanukkah overlap this year, potentially boosting holiday-gift shopping ahead of Dec. 25.

Year-to-year, sales increased 1.8%.

Write to Austen Hufford austen.hufford@wsj.com.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 06, 2016 08:00 ET (13:00 GMT)