A rise in weekly initial unemployment claims, the first in three weeks, and sluggish chain-store sales reported for May did not have much impact on prices yesterday.

In addition, the Johnson Redbook report on chain-store sales showed that sales were up 4.6 percent in January over December.

Prices fell further after the Mitsubishi Bank/Schroder Wertheim weekly survey of chain-store sales showed more strength than expected.

And chain-store sales, as expected, were "pretty lackluster."

A report of higher chain-store sales today offered some grounds for optimism, some said, even though it was discount stores that posted the biggest gains.

An increase of 2.3 percent in chain-store sales in December showed that many retailers had a better Christmas than expected.

Retail chain-store sales crept up last month, continuing the sluggish growth that began in January.

Mitsubishi Bank-Schroder Wertheim releases its weekly index on chain-store sales.

Instinet Research's index of chain-store sales rose 0.6 percent in the first week of September.

New home sales are due this morning, auto sales tomorrow, chain-store sales on Thursday, and consumer credit on Friday.