NEW YORK – The official holiday shopping season appears to have gotten off to a lukewarm start, according to results announced Saturday by a national research group that monitors retail sales. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. was one bright spot in the crowd, reporting its sales exceeded expectations.

According to ShopperTrak RCT Corp., which tracks total sales at more than 45,000 retail outlets, the overall sales on Friday were relatively unchanged compared to a year ago, despite heavier discounting and expanded hours that drew a surge of shoppers to stores in the early morning hours.

The Chicago-based research group reported total sales Friday at $8 billion, down 0.9 percent from a year ago.

“Although the Black Friday number is a bit flat, this may be misleading as we’re comparing this to a very strong 2004 performance,” said Michael P. Niemira, chief economist and director of research for the International Council of Shopping Centers.

He added that while Black Friday – so named because the post-Thanksgiving surge of shoppers supposedly pushes stores into profitability for the year – is important to merchants, it’s not always the best indicator of consumer shopping patterns for the remainder of the season.

In 2004, the Friday after Thanksgiving was the second busiest day of the holiday shopping season, according to ShopperTrak; the busiest day was the Saturday before Christmas.

In a challenging but improving economy, the nation’s retailers plied shoppers Friday with heavier discounting and earlier openings than a year ago. There were also a number of newcomers to the early bird special scene, including Disney Stores and Wal-Mart’s Sam’s Clubs.

At Wal-Mart, the deep discounts and expanded hours appeared to have paid off.

The world’s largest retailer said Saturday that it expects to post a solid 4.3 percent gain in same-store sales for November, helped by better-than- expected sales Friday.