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Apple reported record quarterly sales and profit, as holiday purchases of the new iPhone helped the company steer clear of the consumer spending slump that has hurt rival technology companies.

Fiscal first-quarter profit more than doubled to $13.1 billion, or $13.87 a share, compared with $6 billion, or $6.43 a share, a year earlier, Apple said today in a statement. Sales rose 73 percent to $46.3 billion. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg on average estimated profit of $10.14 a share on sales of $39 billion.

Apple sold 37 million iPhones, up from the previous record of 20.34 million. Customers snapped up the 4S model that went on sale in October, a week after the death of co-founder Steve Jobs.

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Auto dealers from Georgia to New England hustled Friday to find shelter for their cars and trucks, but industry experts predicted Hurricane Irene will damage late August sales even if inventories escape unscathed.

“When you consider that many dealerships will likely close all throughout the hurricane zone this weekend, the storm can absolutely impact August sales,” said Michelle Krebs, an analyst with Edmunds.com.

The impact on car production should be minimal. The only major facilities near the hurricane’s path are BMW’s assembly plant in Greer, S.C., and General Motors’ transmission plant in White Marsh, Md., near Baltimore.

“The plant is on four 10-hour days so there is no production on Fridays, nor on the weekend,” said GM spokeswoman Mary Ann Brown.

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What’s moving prices: Retail sales fell 0.3% in December after an upwardly revised 1.8% the month before, according to the Commerce Department.

The decline surprised analysts who had expected a 0.5% increase, according to consensus estimates gathered by Briefing.com.

Sales outside the auto sector fell 0.2% last month, versus a forecasted 0.3% gain.

Separately, a government report showed the number of Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, while the number of those filing continuing claims declined.

There were 444,000 initial jobless claims filed in the week ended Jan. 9, up 11,000 from a revised 433,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said in its weekly report.

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CHICAGO (Reuters) – In a worrisome sign for retailers, data released on Saturday showed that sales rose a scant 0.5 percent on the traditional kickoff to the holiday shopping season despite early signs of a strong showing.

A focus on bargains pulled shoppers into stores and onto websites over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, but many said they would stick to their budgets and avoid purchases if they could not find a good deal.

Those trends appeared to play out in the results issued by ShopperTrak, which measures customer traffic in stores.

The firm said retail sales rose to $10.66 billion on Black Friday, which often is the single busiest shopping day of the holiday season and can set the tone for the weeks leading up to Christmas on December 25.

In 2008, Black Friday sales measured by ShopperTrak rose 3 percent compared to the prior year’s Black Friday.

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The predictions of pent-up demand for Windows 7 appear to have been borne out, at least by the first week of sales figures from NPD Group.

The market research firm estimates total Windows PC unit sales jumped 49 percent year-over-year for the week that Windows 7 launched and 95 percent from the week prior to launch.

However, those figures are actually down somewhat, percentage-wise, when compared to the Vista launch in early 2007. PC sales growth during the week of the Vista launch jumped 68 percent over the prior year’s sales and 170 percent over the week preceding the launch.

Additionally, Windows PC sales for the launch week of Windows 7 were down 6 percent compared to PC sales during the Vista launch week.

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