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--(www.FinancialNewsUSA.com)-- 11/26/2009 - US Market industry news provided by Financial News USA. The economy is growing modestly, with consumers too wary about spending to invigorate the recovery. That's the picture that emerged from reports Tuesday on the economy and the confidence of consumers, who power 70 percent of it. Unemployment and tight credit have sapped shoppers' willingness and ability to spend freely as retailers enter their crucial holiday season. And Americans are expected to grow more cautious about spending next year. That would make for a plodding recovery. The economy grew at a 2.8 percent rate last quarter. Forecasts for the current quarter are for similarly lackluster growth before a drop-off next year. WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Federal Reserve doesn't expect the recovery will be strong enough to quickly drive down the jobless rate, and acknowledged its efforts to keep the rebound going could feed a new speculative bubble. SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - J Crew Group Inc (NYSE:JCG - News) reported a quarterly net profit far above Wall Street estimates due to strong autumn sales of clothing and expanded profit margins from depressed year-ago levels. J Crew has been one of the few U.S. apparel retailers to see robust sales in a still-weak economy. The company said its merchandise margins hit a historical high, helped by controlled inventory and fueled by more shoppers willing to pay full price for trend-right looks. "The fashion looks good and because inventories are lean, they're getting good full price selling -- some items are actually selling out," said Needham & Co analyst Christine Chen. NEW YORK (AP) -- Barnes & Noble Inc. and Borders Group Inc., the nation's two largest brick-and-mortar book sellers, both posted quarterly losses Tuesday and forecast a difficult holiday season, saying competition from discount chains and online retailers is stiffening. AP - FILE - In this May 18, 2009 file photo, a customer reads magazines inside the Barnes and Noble ... Barnes & Noble, the larger of the two, also cut its forecast for annual profit, and shares of both retailers fell. Even with an online presence, traditional bookstores have had a rough time facing off against online sellers like Amazon.com as they also compete with low-price brick-and-mortar stores including Wal-Mart Stores and Target and cope with consumers cutting discretionary purchases amid tough economic times. Asian stocks climbed on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve raised U.S. growth forecasts for 2010 but Japanese shares fell to a four-month low on worries about capital raisings and government economic policy. The dollar fell to a seven-week low 88.20 yen in morning Tokyo trade as Japanese exporters sold the U.S. currency and the greenback also fell against other currencies. As confidence in Japan's economy wanes, financial markets have been reflecting some of that concern with the stock market trailing rest of the region significantly these past few weeks. "International investors have been underweight Japan for quite some time," said Mark Konyn, who oversees about $11 billion as Asia-Pacific chief executive of RCM, a unit of Allianz Global Investors. "As we went through the election this year there was a glimmer of hope that reforms combined with improvement on economic fundamentals would spur investor interest," he said. About Financial News USA Financial News USA is a Next Generation Financial Communications firm focused on the distribution of market moving news. Financial News USA has developed leading edge e-publishing tools including programming proprietary RSS feeds and enabling open source press release publishing across its network. Financial News USA has been aggressively expanding its news distribution network by targeting direct feeds to financial news and data providers such as FinancialContent, Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO), among others. Financial News USA offers a free news feed available online (www.financialnewsusa.com) to websites and financial services looking for content and for individual investors looking to stay informed on the financial markets. Financial News USA and its affiliates charge each client cash for news distribution and may take an equity position in the companies mentioned herein, please visit the disclaimer at www.financialnewsusa.com. 
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