Top Retailers Report Mixed October Sales : Economy: Clothing stores did relatively well. Big-ticket items sold poorly during the month.

The country’s big retailers today reported mixed October sales, with results at some general merchandise stores hurt by consumers’ reluctance to spend freely on expensive goods, such as furniture or home appliances.

Clothing retailers fared better than major national chains that depend heavily on sales of big-ticket durable goods.

In some parts of the country, particularly the Northeast, however, unseasonably mild weather discouraged shopping for winter apparel.

“They were generally modest kinds of sales gains that continued the basic trend of the past several months,” said analyst Jeffrey Feiner of Merrill Lynch & Co.

Sears, Roebuck and Co., the largest U.S. retailer, said its sales edged up 0.7% in the four weeks ended Oct. 28 to $2.53 billion from $2.51 billion a year earlier.

But sales at Sears stores open at least a year, called same-store or comparable-store sales, were flat.

Retailers and analysts regard same-store sales as a better reflection of a company’s performance than tallies that include the take at newly opened stores.

Feiner said results for some of the retailers looked slightly worse than they were because they were being compared to sales during a strong month last year.

Analysts said it was difficult to generalize about last month’s retailing business because the results varied so widely. Economists track retailers’ results closely for clues about spending patterns. Consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of total U.S. economic output.

“The numbers were really mixed, more so than we’ve seen in previous months,” said retail analyst Jeffrey Edelman of Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc.

Within the apparel category alone there were variations. Moderate to higher-priced clothing merchants posted fairly strong results while apparel sales at discounters lagged, analysts said.

Among some of retailers reporting:

--K mart Corp., the second-largest retailer, said its October sales increased 5.3% to $2.07 billion from $1.97 billion in October, 1988. Its comparable-store sales were up 2.1%.

--Third-ranked Wal-Mart Stores Inc. reported a 22% increase in October sales to $2.19 billion from $1.79 billion. Wal-Mart’s same-stores sales grew 8%.

--J. C. Penney Co. Inc. reported a 9.6% October sales gain to $1.28 billion from $1.17 billion. Penney’s same-store sales rose 8.2%.

--Dayton Hudson Corp. reported October sales went up 16.2% to $969 million from $834 million. Its same-store sales rose 8.5%.

--Limited Inc., a leading specialty apparel retailer, said its sales rose 9% to $334.9 million from $307.7 million. On a comparable-store basis, Limited’s sales were up 6%.