NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Two of the nation's biggest electronics retailers posted fourth-quarter gains Tuesday, as Circuit City met forecasts while Best Buy topped Wall Street's expectations but warned about its first-quarter earnings.

The earnings come as the latest report on weekly U.S. chain store sales showed a 6 percent increase for the week ended Mar. 30, compared with the same period a year earlier, according to the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and UBS Warburg.

However the report, along with the Redbook retail index from Instinet Research, showed the Easter holiday failed to boost sales at most chains. Bad weather also hurt sales last week, the reports said.

Though retailers' 2002 earnings are expected to climb, several analysts have trimmed their intermediate term outlook for several chains such as Wal-Mart (WMT: Research, Estimates), the world's biggest company, and Macy's and Bloomingdale's parent Federated Department Stores (FD: Research, Estimates). Though the economy is recovering and consumers are spending, the bounceback is so far proving a slow one, analysts said.

Best Buy (BBY: down $4.47 to $75.01, Research, Estimates), the nation's largest electronics retailer, said higher sales and controlled expenses helped boost net income for the quarter ended March 2 to $350 million, or $1.62 a share, from $190 million, or 89 cents a share, a year earlier. That beats tracking firm First Call's average analyst estimate of $1.61 a share.

Fourth-quarter sales increased 28 percent to $7 billion from $5.5 billion a year earlier. Sales at stores open at least a year, a key industry gauge known as same-store sales, rose 4.5 percent in the period from a year earlier. But costs associated with revamping the company's Musicland division offset some of the sales strength.

For the year, sales rose 28 percent to $19.6 billion.

The Minneapolis-based chain also said that its first-quarter sales are modestly ahead of company expectations, but it now expects earnings of 30 cents to 32 cents a share for the first quarter. Analysts anticipated a profit of 34 cents a share, according to First Call.

Brad Anderson, Best Buy's vice-chairman downplayed the warning in an interview with CNN/Money.com Tuesday, saying the company has not changed its guidance, but that some analysts had forecast first-quarter profits higher than the company's own expectations.

Anderson said he believes new innovations in digital products will continue to drive strong sales at higher margins during the year even though many analysts are predicting modest growth for retailers in 2002.

"I don't think there's a huge amount of pent-up consumer demand, but fundamentally driving our sales are new products under the digital umbrella," Anderson said. "There's not a vacuum to fill, but there are a lot of stimulating products in the mix."

Meanwhile, Richmond, Va.-based Circuit City (CC: up $1.03 to $19.15, Research, Estimates) said it earned $152.7 million, or 73 cents a share, for the quarter ended Feb. 28, up from $101.2 million, or 49 cents a share, a year earlier. Analysts expected a 73-cent profit, according to First Call.

The results are for the Circuit City Group, which includes earnings from the company's core Circuit City electronics stores and a portion of its interest in auto chain CarMax Group. Excluding CarMax, the company earned 67 cents a share, up from 46 cents a share a year earlier.

Fourth-quarter sales increased 7 percent to $3.4 billion from $3.2 billion a year earlier. Same-store sales rose 6 percent for the quarter but were down 10 percent for the full fiscal year.

Fourth-quarter sales for Circuit City Stores Inc., which includes all of Circuit City and CarMax stores, increased 9 percent to $4.2 billion from $3.8 billion a year earlier. Net earnings were $159.3 million, up from $103.2 million a year earlier.

For the fiscal year, total sales for Circuit City Stores dropped 1 percent to $12.8 billion from almost $13 billion in fiscal year 2001, while net earnings rose to $218.8 million from $160.8 million in 2001.

Best Buy shares shed $4.41 to $75.01 Tuesday. Circuit City shares gained $1.03 to $19.15.