EARNINGS : Nordstrom Reports a 7% Drop

Nordstrom Inc., saddled with labor problems the last year, reported a 10% increase in second-quarter sales and a 7% drop in earnings from the year-earlier period.

The upscale retailer reported sales for the quarter ended July 31 of $801.7 million, up from $729 million for the same period last year. But profits dropped to $35.9 million, or 44 cents a share, from $38.5 million, or 47 cents per share.

Profits for the first half of 1990 were down 20%, to $49 million, from the $61.5 million reported for the first six months of 1989.

Sales over the first six months increased 9%.

Tom Tashjian, a stock analyst with Seidler Amdec in Los Angeles, said Nordstrom sales in stores open for a year or more slowed to a 3% growth rate, about half what he estimated the company expected.

Results from the company’s annual anniversary sale held in July were “substantially short of expectations,” Tashjian said.