n Our regular update on sector performance reveals a lull before the storm of retailer results due in March With the Christmas spending fest a distant memory, most of our retailers are plodding through January, making very little noise ­ even about price cuts. Dave Stoddart at Teather & Greenwood said he didn't expect any fireworks in the lull before retailers' results start appearing at the end of March. Sainsbury shares were up, he said, partly because the City wanted to believe that its recovery was well under way and partly because the Christmas headline figures were so good. Safeway shares had dropped however as the chain still struggled with its credibility problem. Tesco meanwhile might not have as proportionately large rate of growth but it had added more turnover, said Stoddart and remained a class act. But he warned that it shouldn't "kill the goose that lays the golden eggs" ­ jeopardising food in the rush to build up its non food offer. He added that Morrisons' performance had been overshadowed by the sad news that md John Dowd was temporarily leaving the business due to ill health, but said: "Ken Morrison is a true retail genius. It will be great to have him back." Like the previous month, our manufacturers had mixed fortunes: both Unilever and Cadbury Schweppes performed in line with the market while Dairy Crest outperformed by 10% and ABF underperformed by 2% and Northern Foods by 5%. David Hallam, at Williams de Broe, said he still considered ABF, a "defensive player" in a time of market uncertainty. Dairy Crest continued to bump up its share price (up almost 35p) and the company had been buoyed by its capacity to produce an extra 400m litres of milk, with plans of more to come. "They'll be able to provide a lot of supermarket milk and get benefits of scale." Despite Northern Foods' recent profit warning, Hallam thought a share buy-back would mean earnings growth of 2% and that the firm should have ironed out any problems by next year. Annual results for Unilever, on February 14, and Cadbury Schweppes, on the previous day, could prove revealing. {{MISCELLANEOUS }}