Moody's: Lowers FY13 op income outlook for the US retail industry to +3.5-4.5% (prior 4-5%) - Change mostly reflecting weak earnings at J.C. Penney, Sears and Radio Shack - Historically retail sales growth is strongly correlated to GDP, and generally outperforms GDP growth because of inflation, Taylor says. But given the current low level of inflation, this year and next the outperformance gap will be due mainly to reduced government spending, which is constraining GDP growth. Moody's forecasts US GDP growth to be 1.5% to 2.5% in 2013, and 2% to 3% in 2014. - Over the past two holiday seasons, Americans have largely ignored negative headlines around fiscal policy and gone ahead with their gift shopping, and Moody's believes they will do the same this year. The rating agency forecasts fourth-quarter sales growth of 4.5% to 5.5%, compared with 4.2% in the fourth quarter of last year