NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The nation's merchants scored a surprising increase in their crucial year-end holiday sales, countering expectations of a decline, according to an industry report ...http://money.cnn.com/2010/01/14/news/economy/holiday_sales_final_result/NEW YORK, Jan 14 (Reuters) - US holiday retail sales rose 1.1 percent in 2009 instead of falling as experts had forecast, but that growth will be hard to support in the months to come, the National Retail Federation said on Thursday. ....